Gov. Hochul rejects extradition request by Louisiana for doctor in abortion pill case
The development occurred after a grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter and her company over accusations she prescribed abortion pills online to a pregnant minor.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a news conference this afternoon that she is rejecting the extradition request by Louisiana for a New Paltz doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills in that state.
“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana,” Hochul said. “Not now. Not ever.”
The development occurred after a grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter and her company over accusations she prescribed abortion pills online to a pregnant minor.
The case appears to be the first instance of criminal charges against a doctor accused of sending abortion pills to another state, at least since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Prosecutors in Louisiana said the girl experienced a medical emergency after taking the medication and had to be transported to the hospital. It is not clear how far along she was in her pregnancy. The girl's mother, who was also charged, has already turned herself in to police.
District Attorney Tony Clayton, the prosecutor in the Louisiana case, said the arrest warrant for Carpenter is “nationwide” and that she could face arrest in states with anti-abortion laws.
Louisiana has a near-total abortion ban. Physicians convicted of performing abortions, including one with pills, face up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines and the loss of their medical license.
"Louisiana has changed their laws," Hochul said during the news conference. "But that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York."
Hochul said she would push for another piece of legislation this year that will require pharmacists to adhere to doctors' requests that their name is left off a prescription label. She has already signed a law to shield the identities of doctors who prescribe abortion medications.
Carpenter was previously sued by the attorney general of Texas for allegations of sending abortion pills to Texas, though that case did not involve criminal charges.
Pills have become the most common method of abortion in the U.S. and are at the center of various political and legal battles in the state-by-state patchwork of rules governing abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Associated Press wire reports were used in this article.
