A New York doctor has been indicted in Louisiana for allegedly providing abortion medication to a minor online and sending it in the mail, prosecutors said.
On Friday a grand jury indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter, her company Nightingale Medical, and a Louisiana mother, who has not been named, in the first case of its kind since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Louisiana has one of the strictest near-total abortion bans in the country.
Carpenter and the mother have been charged with causing an abortion “by means of delivering, dispensing, distributing, or providing” a pregnant woman with an “abortion-inducting drug.”
The case is being prosecuted by West Baton Rouge Assistant District Attorney Tony Clayton, who accused Carpenter of “pushing that poison” from New York to Louisiana, WWNO reported.
Clayton asserts that the mother allegedly purchased the pills from Carpenter and gave them to the minor. He did not disclose her age but confirmed she was under 18.
“No matter what your position is on abortions, you cannot put a pill in commerce and ship it down to Louisiana. The state has voted that abortions are illegal, so you can’t hide behind the borders of New York and ship pills down here to commit abortions in Louisiana,” Clayton said in an interview with Talk Louisiana.
Anti-abortion activists attend the March for Life rally that marked the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s, now overturned, 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which legalized abortion in all 50 states (Getty Images)
“It’s pushing that poison, that drug, down here and you’re aiding and abetting extended abortion. Don’t ship it to Louisiana. If it’s legal in New York, keep it up there.”
Clayton said that the minor “felt that she had to take the pill because what her mother told her” and was home alone at the time. He said that the minor would not be prosecuted.
New York has a shield law that protects medical providers from out-of-state legal action by refusing to order a defendant to comply with extradition, arrest, and legal proceedings in other states.
The state’s shield law also gives prescribers who are sued the ability to countersue to recover damages.
Louisiana became the first state with a law to reclassify both mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances.”
The drugs, which have other critical reproductive health care purposes, are still allowed in the state but medical personnel have to go through extra steps to access them.
In December 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also filed a lawsuit against a Carpenter, alleging the doctor prescribed abortion medication to a woman in Texas.
Carpenter is one of the founders of the Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine, which has warned of a “disturbing pattern of interference with women’s rights” since Roe v Wade was overturned.
“It’s no secret the United States has a history of violence and harassment against abortion providers, and this state-sponsored effort to prosecute a doctor providing safe and effective care should alarm everyone.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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