The New York governor Kathy Hochul signed a legislative template on Monday to protect the identity of doctors who prescribed abortion medication, days after a doctor in the state had prescribed abortion pills in Louisiana.
The new law, which immediately came into force, enables doctors to apply for their names of abortion pills and instead list the name of their health care practices for medication labels.
The move came after a Grand jury in the municipality of West Baton Rouge, La.
The case seems to be the first instance of criminal charges against a doctor who is accused of having sent abortion pills to another state, at least since the Supreme Court of the United States Roe v. Wade in 2022 with Dobbs against Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Hochul, a democrat, said last week that she would “under no circumstances” sign a delivery request to send carpenters to Louisiana, and said the authorities in Louisiana discovered the name of the doctor because he was on the medication label.
“After today, this will no longer happen,” said the governor when signing the invoice on Monday.
When Louisiana tried to arrest a New York doctor because of her work, our laws protected her from prosecution. But they have not protected their privacy.
I will continue to do everything in my power to protect reproductive health care – both for those who are looking for as well as for those who provide it. pic.twitter.com/tmkjdsw6es
Mother of the pregnant girl also accused
The girl’s mother, who was also charged, turned out to the police on Friday. It was not publicly identified to protect the identity of the minor.
The public prosecutor in Louisiana said that the girl had experienced a medical emergency after taking the medication and had to take to the hospital. It is not clear how far she was during her pregnancy.
During the response to the emergency, a police officer learned from the pills and found that a doctor in the state of New York delivered the drugs and handed over her results to Clayton’s office.
District Prosecutor Tony Clayton, the prosecutor in the case of Louisiana, said that the arrest warrant against Schreiner was “nationwide” and she could arrest with anti-abduction laws in states.
Judges of the United States Court of Justice have heard arguments in a case that could limit access to the frequently used abortion drug Mifiston. Since pandemic, more doctors have given the medication through telemedicine, but anti-abbreviation activists want this to stop.
Louisiana has an almost full abortion ban. Doctors who were convicted of abortions, including a pills, compared to 15 years in prison, 200,000 US dollars in fines and the loss of their medical license.
Hochul said that this year she would urge further legislation, in which pharmacists would comply with the inquiries from the doctors that their name would be left behind by a prescription label.
Carpenter was previously sued by the Attorney General of Texas for the allegations of shipping abortion pills to Texas, although this case did not include any criminal complaints.
Pills have become the most common abortion method in the United States and are at the center of various political and legal battles in the State-by-State Patchwork of Rules for Abortion since the decision of 2022. Around 63 percent of all known abortions in the USA have been in 2023 According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, an Advocacy group of abortion rights, classified as medication abortions.
The New York law affects drugs such as Mifepriston and Misoprostol and enables recipes under the name of a medical practice and not under the individual name of a doctor.
In 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a case, which was submitted by a Christian anti-abdominal group in which the FDA-regulatory measures aimed that made it possible to stir up in up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven Enabling the drug delivery of the drug without a woman who has to personally visit a clinician.
The 9-0 decision did not decide on the advantages of the arguments; Rather, it came to the conclusion that the plaintiffs lacked the legal position.
Reproductive rights groups have criticized the indictment in Louisiana.
“We can not continue to allow forced birth extremists to disrupt our ability to access the necessary health care,” said the Louisiana abortion fund in a statement. “Extremists hope that this case causes a terrifying effect and the hands of doctors who took off an oath to care for their patients continue to do.”
