Wednesday, February 5, 2025

States' fights over abortions: New York moves to shield doctors from prosecution in states with abortion bans

 Not all politics is Federal, even in these unprecedented times.

The NYT has the story:

N.Y. Moves to Shield Doctors Who Send Abortion Pills to States With Bans.   Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill meant to protect medical practitioners in New York who prescribe and send abortion pills out of state.  By Benjamin Oreskes

"Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York signed a bill on Monday intended to give the state’s health care providers an extra layer of protection to shield them from prosecution in states that ban abortion.

"The newly signed law comes days after a New York doctor was indicted in Louisiana for prescribing and sending abortion pills to someone in the state. The charges represented an escalation in the fractious battle between mostly Republican-led states that ban abortion and Democratic-led states seeking to protect or expand abortion access.

"The law, which takes effect immediately, will allow health-care practitioners to avoid putting their names on prescriptions for medications used in abortions, and instead use the names of their medical practices.

"Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, said the goal was to better conceal the identity of providers in hopes of protecting them from criminal, civil or other legal action that anti-abortion states try to take against them.

...

"The legislation signed on Monday augments the state’s telemedicine abortion shield law, under which New York authorities are barred from cooperating with a prosecution or other action taken by another state against a New York abortion provider.

"New York is one of eight states to have adopted such laws. Sending the pills across state lines has become a key way to provide abortion access to women in states with bans.

"Since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022, a dozen states have enacted near-total abortion bans, and others have imposed strict limits on when during a pregnancy an abortion is allowed.

"In the Louisiana case, Dr. Margaret Carpenter of New Paltz, N.Y., was charged last week, along with her medical practice, for “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs.”

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