New York’s abortion shield laws in the crosshairs after Louisiana seeks doctor’s extradition

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke out after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an extradition warrant for a New York doctor indicted by a grand jury for allegedly prescribing abortion pills online.

Hochul said she would not cooperate with any extradition order for Dr. Margaret Carpenter.

“Louisiana has changed their laws, but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York,” Hochul said. “I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana. Not now, not ever.” 

Hochul said she’s sent out a notice that certain out-of-state warrants are not enforceable in the state of New York. 

Prosecutors in Louisiana said a mother ordered the pill online and gave it to her child, a pregnant minor.  

“The young child was told by the mother that she had to take the pill or else, and the child took the pill,”  Baton Rouge, La. District Attorney Tony Clayton previously said. “To ship a pill from another state is equivalent to me of shipping fentanyl or any other type of drugs over here that end up in the mouths and stomachs of our minor kids.”

Prosecutors alleged the girl suffered a medical emergency after taking the medication, resulting in her being treated at a hospital.  

The case appears to be the first criminal charges against a doctor accused of sending abortion pills to another state since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“I will never under any circumstances turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana under any extradition request,” Hochul previously said in a video posted to social media. “I will do everything I can to protect this doctor and allow her to continue the work that she’s doing that is so essential.”

Louisiana has a near-total abortion ban, and physicians convicted of performing abortions, including with pills, face up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines and the loss of their medical license. Louisiana also is the first state to reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol as  as “controlled dangerous substances.” The drugs are still allowed there, but require medical personnel to take extra steps to access them. 

Carpenter was previously sued by the attorney general of Texas for allegations of sending abortion pills to the state, though that case did not involve criminal charges.

After the indictment, Hochul signed additional legislation enabling physicians to ask pharmacies to print their practices on the prescription label and withhold their individual names.