Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files first lawsuit against out-of-state abortion provider (2025)

The lawsuit will test the strength of Texas' near-total abortion ban against a New York shield law that protects physicians who provide abortions.

Bayliss WagnerAustin American-Statesman

This story has been updated with new information.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday filed his first lawsuit against an out-of-state abortion pill provider, ushering in a new stage of the legal battle over terminations of pregnancy that stretches across state lines.

The complaint, which alleges a New York doctor prescribed abortion-inducing pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine, will test the strength of Texas' near-total abortion ban against a 2022 New York shield law. The law bars public entities from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into reproductive health care services, protects against subpoenas and witness summonses and prohibits the extradition of lawsuit defendants to other states.

Paxton's complaint alleges that Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, who is licensed in New York and co-founded the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access in 2022, prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol to a 20-year-old woman from Collin County, Paxton's home turf in North Texas. Both drugs are used to induce abortions and help clear miscarriages.

On July 16, the woman asked the biological father — whom she had not previously informed about the pregnancy, according to the complaint — to take her to the hospital after she began to hemorrhage. After he learned she had terminated the pregnancy, he discovered the empty pill boxes at the woman's residence. It is unclear whether the two lived together and who reported the alleged violation.

Abortions are outlawed in Texas except when a pregnant person faces a "life-threatening condition," with no exceptions for rape, incest or fatal fetal anomalies.

Paxton is seeking $250,000 in damages for the alleged violations of the state's abortion ban and other laws, including one that requires doctors to be licensed in Texas to administer telehealth services in the state. The case was filed Friday in state district court in Collin County.

“In this case, an out-of-state doctor violated the law and caused serious harm to this patient,” Paxton said in a news release Friday. "In Texas, we treasure the health and lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents."

In response to the filing, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul affirmed her support for abortion access and said the state's shield law "protects doctors and patients from draconian rules that put women’s lives at risk."

"Abortion is health care, and New York will always be a safe harbor for those who need it— no matter what politicians in Texas try to do," Hochul said in a statement posted to social media Friday evening.

Anti-abortion groups in Texas, on the other hand, praised Paxton for enforcing the state's laws.

The lawsuit sets up a new stage in the battle over interstate abortion provision, according to Mary Ziegler, a reproductive health law expert and professor at the University of California at Davis School of Law.

"The truce over interstate abortion fights is over," Ziegler wrote in a social media post Friday. "What will it mean ... for the GOP to say abortion should be left to the states now?"

Ziegler told the American-Statesman that targeting doctors who mail abortion pills into red states may represent the “best chance anyone has to shoot a hole through shield laws."At the same time, she said, the case isn't a silver bullet, and it is unlikely to affect abortion pill access in Texas in the short term.

Abortion pill providers "already knew this risk was coming and they're confident that the shield laws will hold up," Ziegler said in a phone interview.

She said she expects the lawsuit will eventually be moved to federal court and noted that New York's shield law allows doctors to sue anyone who sues them for providing abortion-related telemedicine services.

The lawsuit also further escalates Paxton's crusade against pregnancy terminations both inside and outside of Texas' bounds, coming nearly two months after he sued the city of Austin for funding travel expenses for residents seeking out-of-state abortions.

Paxton in September asked a federal courtto strike down a Biden administration rule that shields the medical records of women who seek out-of-state abortions. A decision is still pending in the state's lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Westchester Medical Center Health Network, which lists Carpenter as a provider, and the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access did not respond to the Statesman's requests for comment by our deadline. The American-Statesman also reached out to a cellphone number listed as Carpenter's.

More: Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Austin over allocation of funds to assist out-of-state abortions

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files first lawsuit against out-of-state abortion provider (2025)
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