New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected a request to extradite a doctor who was charged with prescribing abortion pills online to a Louisiana resident last month.
“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana, not now, not ever,” Hochul said at a news conference Thursday after her office received the order for the abortion provider, Dr. Margaret Carpenter.
NBC News obtained a copy of the extradition warrant, which Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed Tuesday.
“There’s only one right answer in this situation, and it is that this doctor must face extradition to Louisiana, where she can stand trial and justice will be served,” Landry said in a video statement Thursday.
A grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish District Court indicted Carpenter last month along with her company, Nightingale Medical, and the Louisiana mother who ordered the pills online for her child, a pregnant minor. All three were charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, a felony.
Carpenter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The case is the first known criminal indictment of a doctor’s being charged with sending abortion pills across state lines after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The indictment could also be the first direct test of New York’s shield laws, which are meant to protect providers who prescribe and ship abortion medication to states where abortion is outlawed.
West Baton Rouge District Attorney Tony Clayton previously told NBC News that “if the same thing happens again, I’m going to prosecute again. I hope this is going to have a chilling effect on [Dr. Carpenter] and anyone else to stop sending the pills to my state.”
After the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban, which does not allow exceptions for rape or incest, went into effect. If they are convicted of performing illegal abortions, including with medication, physicians face up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines and the loss of their medical licenses.
“Louisiana has changed their laws, but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York. Doctors take an oath to protect their patients. I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers, and I will uphold not only our constitution, but also the laws of our land,” Hochul said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also sued Carpenter in December alleging she sent abortion pills to that state; however, that case did not include criminal charges.
After Carpenter was indicted, Hochul signed another piece of legislation allowing abortion providers to use the names of their practices instead of their own names on prescription labels.
