A New York county clerk rejected the state of Texas’s second attempt to punish a doctor for prescribing and sending abortion medication to a Texas woman.
The Lone Star State last week tried to force New York, again, to recognize its ruling against Dr. Margaret Carpenter for allegedly prescribing and mailing abortion pills to a woman in Texas, the Times Union first reported.
Texas officials sent a letter to the clerk’s office last week trying to compel acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck to reconsider his decision and gave him a deadline of July 16 to do so, according to the Ulster County clerk’s office.
“The rejection stands. Resubmitting the same materials does not alter the outcome,” Bruck said in a statement. “While I’m not entirely sure how things work in Texas, here in New York, a rejection means the matter is closed.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Carpenter in December, alleging that she violated the state’s abortion ban after she prescribed and mailed abortion medication to a 20-year-old Texan woman.
Neither Carpenter nor her lawyer showed up to a court hearing regarding the charge or responded to the lawsuit, according to The New York Times. A Texas judge ordered Carpenter to pay more than $100,000 in penalties for prescribing the medication.
Paxton’s office followed up with the Ulster County clerk’s office and requested that it enforce the default civil judgment back in March, which the clerk refused to do, citing the state’s shield law.
“In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office,” Bruck said in a statement in March.
A spokesperson for Paxton did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
New York is one of eight states that have a telemedicine abortion-related shield law in place to protect health care providers from fines, criminal charges, and extradition requests from other states where abortion care is restricted.
New York officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), have pledged to protect Carpenter and other abortion providers and their patients.
