Reproductive care providers in the state of New York who prescribe abortus pills to patients outside the state now have an extra protective layer.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed new legislation immediately from Monday, who says that a prescribing doctor can ask for their name to be left from abortive bottles, instead only the name of their health care practice on medication labels.
The new law is a supplement to the existing shield laws of New York that protect prescribers who use TeleHealth services to deliver abortion pills to patients in state lines, even in states where abortion is prohibited.
Hochul’s rapid action comes only a few days after a doctor from New York, Margaret Carpenter, and her practice was sued by a large jury in Louisiana due to alleged prescription of an abortion pill that was taken by a teenager who lives in the state. The minor’s mother was also charged.
The case seems to be the first instance in which a state where abortion is forbidden has established criminal prosecution against a doctor in another state for prescribing abortion medication. Hochul said Monday that the authorities in Louisiana discovered the name of Carpenter because it was on the medication label.
This is what else you need to know:
How do shield laws work?
Schildwets, as they relate to reproductive care, are state statutes that protect abortion providers, abortion patients and people who help others gain access to abortion in states where it is forbidden. Schildwets protect these people as long as they meet the abortion laws of the state in which they practice and have a permit.
“For example, a provider who has a permit in New York, who is physically present in New York, and in combination with the New York abortion law, New York is not going to facilitate a civil lawsuit or criminal investigation of that provider under the Shield Law,” ” Rachel Rebouché, professor at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, said Yahoo News.
“For example, New York says that no state or an agency will spend a summons or make an arrest or will make extradition if the person has not been in the other state that the provider is punishable,” explains Rebouché. “It will not take disciplinary measures in the New York State Board and it will not increase the malpractice.”
Abortion pills are the most common method for terminating a pregnancy, accounting for 63% of American abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Despite the deterioration of access to abortion in states that have set total or almost total prohibition after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the monthly abortion figures in general have increased throughout the country, according to a report from the Society of Family Planning.
Shield laws, with which doctors outside the State allow to prescribe medication abborts via TeleHealth, have played a key role in maintaining access to the procedure for patients in states with both abortion prohibitions and six weeks.
There were 9,200 TeleHealth subsorts delivered under Shield laws from January to March 2024, an increase from 16% from October to December 2023, according to the Society of Family Planning report.
Which states have shield laws?
Currently, 18 states have a form of interstate shield laws. Eight of those states – California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – have shield laws that include telehealth determining, which also protect providers, regardless of where the patient received care.
In the case of Carpenter she is said to have prescribed abortion medication via a TeleHealth visit to a patient in Louisiana, while she was physically present in the state of New York, who is legally for a provider who can do according to New York’s state law. The abortion medication was then delivered by mail.
Last year, Louisiana approved a law that classifies specifically abortion drugs, known as Mifepristone and Misoprostol, as controlled and dangerous substances according to the State Act.
Mifptistone, which is also used in the treatment of miscarriages, is often linked to a second drug mass and is usually used by 12 weeks of pregnancy. Both were approved more than 24 years ago by the Food and Drug Administration.
What is the next step for the case against Timmerman?
Louisiana has had an almost total ban on abortion since the overthrow of roe, without exceptions for rape or incest. According to the State’s abortion law, care providers who have been convicted of performing an illegal abortion, including prescribing abortion medication, up to 15 years in prison, are $ 200,000 in fines and the loss of their medical permit.
Hochul said last week that they will never be under any circumstances [Carpenter] About to the state of Louisiana under an extradition request. “
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who would enforce the Shield Law of New York, said in a statement that the “cowardly attempt by Louisiana … to arm the law against out-of-state providers is unjust and on-American . “
According to some experts, Carpenter can run the risk of arresting when she travels to Louisiana, or another state without a shield law. “If [Carpenter] Go to Louisiana, she will be subject to the Louisiana legislation … and can be arrested, “says Rebouché. “An order could be issued that New York might not honor, but New York Shield Law says nothing about what other states can do.”