Texas A.G. Paxton sues New York doctor over medication abortion allegations
A Law Dork Q&A on this new front in the anti-abortion movement. The litigation also will serve as a challenge — directly or indirectly — to New York's abortion shield law.

CHRIS GEIDNER
DEC 13, 2024

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been preparing for months to go after a New York doctor who he alleges is violating Texas law “by providing abortion-inducing drugs to Texans through telehealth,” it appears from the petition he himself posted on Friday.

The lawsuit — both a propaganda effort and an attempt to push the law further right — seeks to bar Dr. Maggie Carpenter, a New York doctor, from practicing medicine in Texas without a license or, more directly, violating the Texas law that generally says a person cannot “knowingly perform, induce, or attempt an abortion.” Paxton is seeking to impose at least $100,000 in civil penalties and “all litigation and investigative costs” on Carpenter.

By going after a New York doctor, Paxton is also seeking to challenge to power of that state, which has implemented several “shield laws” in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade to protect New Yorkers and those in New York against out-of-state investigations based on providing or obtaining abortion care.

Although the petition Paxton’s office posted on Friday is marked by the Collin County clerk as having been filed on December 12, the signature block of the petition itself is dated November 19, and the investigator’s declaration attesting that the facts in the petition “are true and correct” is dated October 15.

{Signature block of the petition}

Declaration accompanying the petition
In short, this is the case Paxton — a far-right Republican who has regularly used his authority to try to go after those he opposes politically and ideologically like PFLAG and Media Matters — has been looking to bring.

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