BATON ROUGE, La. — A New York physician was indicted by a Louisiana grand jury on Friday for allegedly prescribing an abortion capsule on-line within the Deep South state, which has one of many strictest near-total abortion bans within the U.S.
Grand jurors on the District Courtroom for the Parish of West Baton Rouge issued an indictment in opposition to Dr. Margaret Carpenter; her firm, Nightingale Medical, PC; and a 3rd individual. All three have been charged with legal abortion via abortion-inducing medication, a felony.
The case seems to be the primary occasion of legal fees in opposition to a health care provider accused of sending abortion tablets to a different state, not less than for the reason that U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and opened the door for states to have strict anti-abortion legal guidelines.
Carpenter was additionally sued by the Texas lawyer normal in December underneath related allegations of sending tablets to that state. That case didn’t contain legal fees.
Carpenter didn’t instantly return a message.
Testing New York’s protect legal guidelines
The indictment may very well be the primary direct take a look at of New York’s protect legal guidelines, that are meant to guard prescribers who use telehealth to supply abortion tablets to sufferers in states the place abortion is banned.
“Earlier right this moment, a New York physician was indicted in Louisiana for utilizing telemedicine to prescribe abortion remedy to a affected person. That is proper: a health care provider is being prosecuted for offering primary well being care to her affected person. We at all times knew that overturning Roe v. Wade wasn’t the top of the street for anti-abortion politicians. That is why I labored with the Legislature to cross nation-leading legal guidelines to guard suppliers and sufferers. It is extra important than ever for states to step up and shield reproductive freedom — and I am going to by no means again down from this combat,” Gov. Kathy Hochul stated in a ready launch.
Hochul signed the invoice defending docs from out-of-state lawsuits in 2023.
New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James, who would implement the protect regulation, stated in a press release:
“Abortion care is well being care. The criminalization of abortion care is a direct and brazen assault on People’ bodily autonomy and their proper to reproductive freedom. This cowardly try out of Louisiana to weaponize the regulation in opposition to out-of-state suppliers is unjust and un-American. We is not going to enable dangerous actors to undermine our suppliers’ means to ship important care. Treatment abortion is protected, efficient, and crucial, and New York will be sure that it stays out there to all People who want it.”
Drugs have change into the commonest technique of abortion within the U.S., accounting for practically two-thirds of them by 2023. They’re additionally on the middle of political and authorized motion over abortion. In January, one choose let three states proceed to problem federal authorities approvals for the way one of many medication often concerned might be prescribed.
Louisiana classifies abortion tablets as “managed harmful substances”
The indictment comes simply months after Louisiana turned the primary state with a regulation to reclassify each mifepristone and misoprostol as “managed harmful substances.” The medication are nonetheless allowed, however medical personnel must undergo additional steps to entry them.
Beneath the laws, if somebody knowingly possesses mifepristone or misoprostol with no legitimate prescription for any objective, they may very well be fined as much as $5,000 and despatched to jail for one to 5 years. The regulation carves out protections for pregnant girls who receive the drug with no prescription to tackle their very own.
For the reason that fall of Roe v. Wade, Louisiana has had a near-total abortion ban, with none exceptions for rape or incest. Beneath the regulation, physicians convicted of performing an unlawful abortion, together with one with tablets, resist 15 years in jail, $200,000 in fines and the lack of their medical license.
“Make no mistake, since Roe v Wade was overturned, we have witnessed a disturbing sample of interference with girls’s rights,” the Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine, the place Carpenter is without doubt one of the founders, stated in a press release. “It is no secret the USA has a historical past of violence and harassment in opposition to abortion suppliers, and this state-sponsored effort to prosecute a health care provider offering protected and efficient care ought to alarm everybody.”