A New York doctor is facing criminal charges in Louisiana after prosecutors say she prescribed an abortion drug that terminated a Port Allen teenager’s pregnancy.
West Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Tony Clayton says it is illegal to send abortion pills into this state.
“There is a law on the books that any person that dispenses, delivers, or produces any pills that induces and causes an abortion than that person is a principle to breaking the law committing the act of abortion,” Clayton said.
A West Baton Rouge grand jury has indicted Doctor Margaret Carpenter and the 39-year-old mother who allegedly gave the pills to her teenage daughter.
Most abortions have been illegal in Louisiana since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade in the summer of 2022. Clayton says that includes abortion medication.
“Abortions are illegal (in Louisiana), and to put a pill in commerce that ultimately enters the mouth and stomach of a child, I believe some folks have to answer to that,” Clayton said.
Clayton says he is not prosecuting the minor who took the drugs. He says last April, her mother instructed her daughter to take the pills that were shipped in from the New Paltz clinic in New York. Doctor Carpenter has been practicing family medicine for more than 20 years.
Clayton says it is the first criminal indictment of its kind in Louisiana.
“The state has voted that abortions are illegal, so you can’t hide behind the voters of New York and ship pills down here to commit abortions down here in Louisiana,” Clayton said.
Despite that, the state of New York passed a law that shields doctors from abortion-related prosecution. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says she will not extradite Dr. Carpenter to Louisiana.
But Gov. Hochul’s defiance may ultimately be for show.
According to Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino, extradition may be unavoidable.
“The United States Constitution has an extradition clause that typically requires NY to extradite,” Ciolino said in an email to WWL First News. “If NY refuses, Louisiana may go to Federal court to get a mandamus to force her to extradite.”
But the constitution’s extradition clause, Ciolino points out, requires the defendant to be a “fugitive.” Since Dr. Carpenter was not present in Louisiana for the alleged crime, it is possible New York’s governor has no legal obligation to extradite her.
If Carpenter and the 39-year-old mother are convicted, they face a prison sentence of up to five years.