A New York county clerk has refused to uphold a Texas judge’s ruling requiring a New York-based doctor to pay civil penalties for prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to a woman residing in Texas.
The refusal comes after a Collin County judge ordered Dr. Margaret Carpenter to pay $100,000 in civil penalties after prescribing the drugs to a woman from Dallas.
In December 2024, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Dr. Carpenter for prescribing abortion drugs that consequently caused the death of an unborn infant and complications for the mother requiring medical intervention.
Collin County District Judge Bryan Gantt found Dr. Carpenter guilty of administering abortifacient drugs that ended the life of an unborn child and ordered her to pay a civil penalty.
The acting Ulster County Clerk in New York, Taylor Bruck, has refused to file the civil judgment, originally issuing a refusal in March and doing so again on Monday.
Bruck based his refusal on New York’s shield laws, which protect medical providers from legal consequences imposed by other states where certain practices—primarily abortion and gender-mutilating procedures—are prohibited and punishable by law. New York is one of eight states that have such laws.
“Dr. Margaret Carpenter is responsible for the death of an unborn child,” Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of media and communication for Texas Right to Life, told Texas Scorecard. “She must be brought to justice. This case shows that the greatest threat to preborn babies is not in brick and mortar clinics anymore—it’s in mailboxes.”
“When people order abortion pills online, activists like Dr. Carpenter send them to Texas, as many as 19,000 per year,” she added.
“That’s why Texas needs to stop abortion pills in the special session starting July 21.”
Dr. Carpenter is a licensed abortion provider in New York and co-founder of Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine—an organization that helps women obtain abortion-inducing drugs via telemedicine, regardless of state abortion laws.
She has also collaborated with Aid Access, a non-profit organization that unlawfully sent over 19,000 abortion pills to women throughout the United States in 2024.
Aid Access has also collaborated extensively with Project SANA, an organization at UT-Austin that claims to “study the safety, effectiveness, and accessibility of self-managed medication abortion.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has included additional protections for unborn children on the agenda for the upcoming special session.
State Rep. Steve Toth has authored House Bill 66 for the special session. It creates a civil and criminal offense for the distribution of abortion drugs and holds internet providers hosting sites that provide access to such drugs accountable.
The special session begins July 21, and lawmakers have 30 days to pass legislation before the session concludes.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
