A Louisiana grand jury on Friday indicted a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a minor patient in the southern state, in what appears to be the first criminal case against an abortion provider since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter and her company Nightingale Medical have been charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, The Associated Press reported. The patient’s mother, who prosecutors say ordered the pills online for her daughter, has also been charged with the same felony crime, according to the AP.
Abortion is almost completely banned in Louisiana, with few exceptions. Abortion laws in the state are among the most restrictive in the country.
Louisiana prosecutors said the charges are centered on coercion. District Attorney Tony Clayton, who brought the charges, said that the minor did not want the abortion, The New York Times reported. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also said the case has “nothing to do with reproductive healthcare.”
“This is about coercion. This is about forcing somebody to have an abortion who didn’t want one,” she said.
But the crime of “coerced abortion” was not cited in the indictment, as the Louisiana Illuminator reported. Carpenter did not immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment. The indictment is also a test of New York’s shield laws, which are intended to protect local physicians from criminal prosecution for providing abortion care to patients in states where it is banned. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the charges “outrageous” in a video statement on Friday and vowed to “never, under any circumstances, turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana under any extradition request.” Carpenter is the co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, an organization that advocates for telemedicine abortion across the country. The group said in a statement on Friday that abortion pills are “an essential part of women’s healthcare” and criticized the Louisiana case as a “state-sponsored effort to prosecute a doctor providing safe and effective care.” Carpenter is party to another interstate abortion case, as well. She is a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in December sued her for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas resident via telemedicine.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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