New York Attorney General Letitia James this month announced she is formally intervening in a case that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched against a New York county clerk who is shielding an abortionist who illegally caused the death of a Texas baby.
The intervention underscores the stake that James believes New York has in the outcome of the suit, which challenges the reach of the state’s “shield law.”
According to a Sept. 19 report from Texas Right to Life, such laws “legally protect doctors and those who aid in abortions for women who live in states with Pro-Life laws, like Texas.”
In a Sept. 8 press release about the intervention, James said, “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here. Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state extremists, and New York will always stand strong as a safe haven for health care and freedom of choice.”
The shield law was passed in 2023. The release states that later this month James will argue in a filing “that Texas cannot commandeer New York’s courts to enforce its punitive abortion laws, and that New York has the legal right and responsibility to safeguard its residents, its providers, and its courts from out-of-state overreach.”
CatholicVote previously reported that Dr. Magaret Carpenter, an abortionist based in New York, mailed abortion drugs to a pregnant woman in Texas. Paxton’s office said in a July press release that the drugs “resulted in the killing of an unborn child and serious medical complications for the mother,” prompting him to sue Carpenter. Paxton secured a $100,000 penalty and a permanent injunction against Carpenter, but the New York-based Ulster County Clerk’s Office has “plainly rejected any attempt by Texas to enforce the judgment and authorize collection of the penalty,” according to the release.
In July, Paxton filed a legal petition against the New York acting county clerk for Ulster County, Taylor Bruck, seeking a writ of mandamus — a court order requiring a government official to properly carry out their duties — to ensure Carpenter is held accountable.
“Dr. Carpenter is a radical abortionist who must face justice, not get legal protection from New York liberals intent on ending the lives of as many unborn children as they can,” Paxton said at the time. “No matter where they reside, pro-abortion extremists who send drugs designed to kill the unborn into Texas will face the full force of our state’s pro-life laws.”
The legal spar between attorney generals also comes amid Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s signing of “The Woman and Child Protection Action,” which enables private citizens to sue companies that ship abortion drugs into the state, as CatholicVote previously reported.
The law takes effect in December.