A legal battle to prevent abortion pills from being sent across pro-life state lines has begun.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit last month against New York-based abortion activist Dr Margaret Carpenter, who sent abortion pills to a 20-year-old woman in Texas. The authorities were alerted when the woman went to hospital due to heavy bleeding caused by the pill.
It is the first challenge of its kind and could affect differing laws across states. An estimated 8,000 women a month are accessing abortion pills which are banned in their state.
Illegal and dangerous
Paxton said: “In this case, an out-of-state doctor violated the law and caused serious harm to this patient. This doctor prescribed abortion-inducing drugs—unauthorized, over telemedicine—causing her patient to end up in the hospital with serious complications.”
He continued: “In Texas, we treasure the health and lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.”
Paxton has petitioned a Texas court to stop Dr Carpenter disregarding Texas law, and to order her to pay $100,000 for each violation.
This doctor prescribed abortion-inducing drugs—unauthorized, over telemedicine—causing her patient to end up in the hospital with serious complications.
Women at risk
US pro-abortion group Society of Family Planning documented an increase in medically unsupervised abortions from 22,430 in the second quarter of 2023, to 57,150 in the second quarter of 2024 — a rise of 155 per cent. In March 2024, they accounted for 20 per cent of all abortions.
Campaign group Students for Life Action warned against such abortions, explaining: “Without proper screening for blood type or by ultrasound, women’s lives and future fertility are at risk”.
It also feared that “without in-person verification, abusers can get chemical abortion pills to use against women without their knowledge or consent”.
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