Judge fines NY abortionist $100,000 for mailing injury-inducing abortion drugs to Texas

A Texas judge has ordered New York abortionist Margaret Carpenter to stop shipping abortion pills into the state, while also issuing her a fine of over $100,000.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Carpenter in December, after she mailed a Texas woman the chemical abortion drugs in violation of state law. The woman suffered serious complications after taking the pills, and required emergency care. Carpenter is the same abortionist who was later indicted in Louisiana for mailing the abortion pill to a teen in that state; that teen, too, was injured and required emergency treatment.

Due to the December lawsuit, Carpenter was to appear before Collin County District Judge Bryan Gantt for a February 12 hearing. As expected, she did not comply. Gantt ruled the next day that Carpenter had violated state law by practicing in the state without a license and by facilitating an abortion, and “that an unborn child died as a result of these violations.” He issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Carpenter from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents, and ordered her to pay the $100,000 fine as well as $13,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs plus interest.

“In Texas, we will always protect innocent life and uphold the laws that protect mothers and unborn babies,” Paxton previously said. “Radical out-of-state doctors will not be allowed to peddle dangerous and illegal drugs in Texas to kill unborn babies. Any doctor attempting to do so will be punished to the full extent of the law.”

While Carpenter is facing legal ramifications in states like Texas and Louisiana, officials in her own state of New York have vowed to protect her. The state’s “shield law” was designed specifically for the situations which Carpenter is now facing, and is intended to protect abortionists who violate pro-life laws in other states, even if women are injured at the hands of these abortionists. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has promised to “fight like hell” to protect Carpenter and those like her.

According to the New York Times, Texas may file a petition in a New York state court to try to collect Carpenter’s financial penalty, assuming Carpenter does not pay the fines. New York would likely argue against that penalty with its shield law, which could propel the case to the United States Supreme Court.