BATON ROUGE, La. — A New York doctor was indicted by a Louisiana grand jury Friday on allegations that she prescribed an abortion pill online in the Deep South state, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.
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.
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 vs. Wade in 2022 and opened the door for states to have strict anti-abortion laws.
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. The doctor did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The indictment comes months after Louisiana became the first state with a law to reclassify both mifepristone and misoprostol, used in medication abortions, as “controlled dangerous substances.” The drugs are 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 vs. 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.
“We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law,” Republican Louisiana Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill said in a statement on Friday.
“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.”
Friday’s 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.
“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,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a prepared release.
New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who would enforce the shield law, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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.
Cline and Mulvihill write for the Associated Press. Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, N.J. AP reporter Michael Hill in Albany, N.Y., contributed.