Antiabortionists Attack Telemedicine

The state of Texas has sued a doctor in New York for prescribing the drugs required for a medical abortion.

The lawsuit accuses New York Dr. Maggie Carpenter of violating Texas law by providing the drugs to a Texas patient and seeks up to $250,000. No criminal charges are involved.

Texas bars abortion at all stages of pregnancy and has been one of the most aggressive states at pushing back against abortion rights. It began enforcing a state law in 2021 -- even before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door to state bans -- that barred nearly all abortions by allowing citizens to sue anyone who provides an abortion or assists someone in obtaining one. [links omitted]

New York is among the states that have anticipated this problem by passing shield laws to protect doctors from such lawsuits, and the case is expected to lead to a legal test of same.

Cropped from image by unknown photographer, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The New York shield law includes a provision that allows a prescriber who is sued to countersue the plaintiff to recover damages.

That makes the Texas lawsuit thorny.

Even if Paxton prevails in Texas court, Ziegler said, it's unclear how that could be enforced. "Is he going to go to New York to enforce it?" she asked.

Still, anti-abortion groups cheered the filing and abortion rights supporters derided it.

On top of the fact that abortion is a right, it is remarkably short-sighted on the part of antiabortionists to support such laws, given that California soon aped the Texas law in the name of gun control.

These laws aim to use the threat of lawsuits to infringe upon the liberty of people doing things that are perfectly legal within their own jurisdictions, and should be found unconstitutional, or neutered in some other way.

I am not an attorney, but I hope that this legal mess ends up eliminating this misuse of the law from the toolboxes of those who would weaponize meddlers for their own anti-liberty ends.

-- CAV