BATON ROUGE, La. — A New York doctor was indicted by a Louisiana grand jury on Friday for allegedly prescribing an abortion pill online in the Deep South state, which has one of the strictest near-total abortion bans in the U.S.
Grand jurors at the District Court for the Parish of West Baton Rouge issued an indictment against Dr. Margaret Carpenter; her company, Nightingale Medical, PC; and a third person. All three were charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, a felony.
Prosecutors in Louisiana say a mother ordered the pill online and gave it to her child.
“The young child was told by the mother that she had to take the pill or else, and the child took the pill,” District Attorney Tony Clayton said.
The case appears to be the first instance of criminal charges against a doctor accused of sending abortion pills to another state, at least since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and opened the door for states to have strict anti-abortion laws.
“To ship a pill from another state is equivalent to me of shipping fentanyl or any other type of drugs over here that end up in the mouths and stomachs of our minor kids,” Clayton said.
Carpenter was also sued by the Texas attorney general in December under similar allegations of sending pills to that state. That case did not involve criminal charges.
CBS News New York reached out to Carpenter, but has not heard back yet.
Testing New York’s shield laws
The indictment could be the first direct test of New York’s shield laws, which are intended to protect prescribers who use telehealth to provide abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is banned.
“Earlier today, a New York doctor was indicted in Louisiana for using telemedicine to prescribe abortion medication to a patient. That’s right: a doctor is being prosecuted for providing basic health care to her patient. We always knew that overturning Roe v. Wade wasn’t the end of the road for anti-abortion politicians. That’s why I worked with the Legislature to pass nation-leading laws to protect providers and patients. It’s more critical than ever for states to step up and protect reproductive freedom — and I’ll never back down from this fight,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a prepared release.
Hochul signed the bill protecting doctors from out-of-state lawsuits in 2023.
“I will never under any circumstances turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana under any extradition request,” Hochul said in a video posted to social media. “I will do everything I can to protect this doctor and allow her to continue the work that she’s doing that is so essential.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who would enforce the shield law, said in a statement:
“Abortion care is health care. The criminalization of abortion care is a direct and brazen attack on Americans’ bodily autonomy and their right to reproductive freedom. This cowardly attempt out of Louisiana to weaponize the law against out-of-state providers is unjust and un-American. We will not allow bad actors to undermine our providers’ ability to deliver critical care. Medication abortion is safe, effective, and necessary, and New York will ensure that it remains available to all Americans who need it.”
Legal experts say Carpenter may still face some hurdles.
“What happens when she tries to renew her medical license and she has a pending felony indictment in Louisiana? What happens to the doctor when she tries to fly somewhere and TSA says, hey, you have an active warrant?” attorney Franz Borghardt said.
Louisiana classifies abortion pills as “controlled dangerous substances”
Pills have become the most common means of abortion in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds of them by 2023. They’re also at the center of political and legal action over abortion. In January, one judge let three states continue to challenge federal government approvals for how one of the drugs usually involved can be prescribed.
The indictment comes just months after Louisiana became the first state with a law to reclassify both mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances.” The drugs are still allowed, but medical personnel have to go through extra steps to access them.
Under the legislation, if someone knowingly possesses mifepristone or misoprostol without a valid prescription for any purpose, they could be fined up to $5,000 and sent to jail for one to five years. The law carves out protections for pregnant women who obtain the drug without a prescription to take on their own.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, Louisiana has had a near-total abortion ban, without any exceptions for rape or incest. Under the law, physicians convicted of performing an illegal abortion, including one with pills, face up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines and the loss of their medical license.
“Make no mistake, since Roe v Wade was overturned, we’ve witnessed a disturbing pattern of interference with women’s rights,” the Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine, where Carpenter is one of the founders, said in a statement. “It’s no secret the United States has a history of violence and harassment against abortion providers, and this state-sponsored effort to prosecute a doctor providing safe and effective care should alarm everyone.”
Dr. Dara Kass, an emergency medicine physician in New York, said abortion bans are making it more dangerous for young girls and women.
“It’s making it less safe to be pregnant, and it’s increasing things like infant mortality and maternal mortality in states where abortions are restricted,” she said.
contributed to this report.