For the second time in as many months, a New York physician was hit with legal action by a state with strict anti-abortion laws for prescribing abortion medicine to residents living in their state. Louisiana charged a New York physician with prescribing the abortion drugs to a resident of their state, only two months after Texas sued the same doctor for the same alleged offense.

In December, Texas sued a New York doctor for providing medical abortion pills to a resident there, in a civil case. In Louisiana, the legal action involves a criminal complaint, which makes this the first criminal case of its kind in the U.S. In both actions, the same New York physician was targeted.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reacted quickly after the Louisiana move against the NY physician and signed a bill that will shield the identities of all doctors who prescribe abortion medications in the state. The New York law took effect immediately upon signing. However, although the identities of specific doctors who prescribe abortion drugs will be hidden, the new bill does not hide the names of their healthcare practices on any medication labels.

Governor Hochul said she will work on another bill that will “require pharmacists to adhere to doctors’ requests that their name is left off a prescription label.”

In the Louisiana case, a grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish indicted New York Dr. Margaret Carpenter and her practice for allegedly” prescribing abortion pills online to a pregnant minor.”

Governor Hochul has refused to sign the extradition request from Louisiana to send Dr. Carpenter to the state to appear in court. The state discovered the doctor's name, Governor Hochul said, by reading her name on the medication label.

“After today, that will no longer happen,” the governor said at the bill signing.

Louisiana has an almost total abortion ban, with severe penalties for violating the law. Any doctors convicted of performing abortions in the state, including medical abortion, may face up to fifteen years in prison and be fined $200,000 in fines, plus lose their medical licenses.

In reaction to New York’s new law, Louisiana District Attorney Tony Clayton, who is also the prosecutor in the Louisiana abortion case, said that his state’s arrest warrant for Dr. Carpenter is “nationwide” and that she may face arrest in other states with anti-abortion laws.

In court documents, the prosecutors say the minor experienced a medical emergency after taking the prescribed medical abortion pills. She was taken to a hospital, and her mother was charged for assisting in her daughter’s taking abortion medicine. The mother was arrested and then released on bond.

The battle between anti and pro-abortion states is becoming more heated in the U.S. New York has so-called Shield Laws to protect in-state physicians from out-of-state laws prohibiting abortion medicines. But anti-abortion states are now emboldened to sue out-of-state doctors for prescribing abortion pills to their residents. The New York Times reports that “Doctors, nurse practitioners and other health care providers in states with shield laws have been sending more than 10,000 abortion pills per month to states with abortion bans or restrictions.”

With the abortion battles heating up, expect to see these types of cases multiply and for the Supreme Court to possibly weigh in on whether states can enforce their laws beyond their borders.

In 2021, the FDA lifted a prior rule requiring pregnant women who receive abortion pills to appear in person. Federal law currently allows the medication to be sent via mail or other shipping methods.