• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Delaware nurse practitioner Debra Lynch Jan. 27, alleging she illegally mailed abortion pills to women in Texas.

• The lawsuit claims Lynch operated a mail-order service sending abortion medications into Texas, violated state restrictions limiting abortion provision to licensed physicians, and ignored the state’s Human Life Protection Act.

• Paxton’s office alleges Lynch openly acknowledged shipping large quantities of abortion pills to Texas and took steps to conceal prescriptions and advise patients on obtaining documentation indicating miscarriages.

• The case follows a similar failed lawsuit Paxton brought against a New York abortion provider and is expected to test the scope of Delaware’s shield law protecting out-of-state abortion providers.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Delaware nurse practitioner Jan. 27, alleging she mailed abortion pills to women in Texas in violation of state abortion laws.

According to a press release from Paxton’s office, Debra Lynch operates a mail-order abortion pill service called Her Safe Harbor and “routinely sends mifepristone and misoprostol to women across state lines.” Paxton argues that Lynch violated Texas’ Health and Safety Code and the state’s Human Life Protection Act, which allows abortions only when the life or health of the mother is endangered.

He also alleges that Lynch violated Texas law by providing abortions in the state without being a licensed physician, as the state permits only licensed physicians to perform abortions.

The lawsuit cites comments Lynch made to three news outlets about her business operations. According to the filing, Lynch said she ships “a lot” of abortion pills to Texas and is not afraid of fines or jail time. The suit also states that she admitted to placing false prescriptions in abortion pill packages to hide traceable information and advised a Texas woman on how to obtain emergency room documentation that falsely indicated a miscarriage rather than an abortion.

“The day of reckoning for this radical out-of-state abortion drug trafficker is here,” Paxton said in the release. “No one, regardless of where they live, will be freely allowed to aid in the murder of unborn children in Texas.” 

According to the suit, each violation of the Human Life Protection Act and the abortion-related provisions of the Health and Safety Code carries a civil penalty of at least $100,000. Performing abortions without a physician’s license carries an additional civil penalty of $1,000 per violation. Paxton argues that each package mailed into Texas constitutes a separate violation and is seeking an injunction to prevent Lynch from continuing to ship abortion pills into the state.

Paxton’s suit is the second he has filed against an out-of-state abortion provider, as Zeale previously reported. In December 2024, he sued New York physician Margaret Carpenter, who invoked New York’s shield law and did not respond to the suit, according to The Texas Tribune. In October 2025, a New York judge dismissed Texas’ effort to enforce its civil judgment against Carpenter in New York. 

The outlet also reported that Delaware has a similar shield law, making Paxton’s case a test of the protection for abortion providers.