Louisiana law enforcement officials are investigating a second case against a New York doctor for allegedly mailing abortion medications into the state, Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Monday.
The attorney general’s office and police in Shreveport are investigating the case of a woman who was 20 weeks pregnant when she had an abortion, Murrill said during testimony in favor of an anti-abortion bill in the House Civil Law and Procedure committee. Medication abortion is FDA approved up to ten weeks gestation.
“She and her boyfriend, after she gave birth, took the baby, wrapped it in a towel, and threw it in a garbage can,” Murrill said.
She said the couple went to the hospital, and the hospital told them to retrieve the remains, which Murrill said the boyfriend did.
Murrill told lawmakers the case involved the same New York doctor indicted by Louisiana earlier this year.
In February, Louisiana sent an extradition warrant to New York’s governor for Dr. Margaret Carpenter, alleging she sent abortion medications in the mail to a Louisiana mother, who then gave them to her daughter.
New York’s governor rejected the warrant. New York is among a group of Democratic-leaning states with abortion shield laws that protect abortion providers who send pills to states with bans.
“We're not going to stop trying to extradite [Carpenter] and prosecute her for the crimes that she's committing in our state,” Murrill told the committee.
She said the case of the Shreveport woman illustrated the need to pass another anti-abortion bill in Louisiana, authored by Republican Rep. Lauren Ventrella, calling it “another tool in the toolbox.”
The bill would let family members who suspect their relative had an illegal abortion sue a range of people or entities — including doctors, pharmacists and even drug manufacturers — for “causing” or “substantially” facilitating the abortion. That includes out-of-state physicians like Carpenter. It’s been dubbed the “Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act.”
“The problem that we have is that there are activists who are intent on sending these pills to people through the mail,” Murrill said.
But it’s unclear what impact the bill would have on out-of-state abortion providers. Many shield laws protect against both criminal and civil liability, including New York’s. Texas already tried to sue Carpenter, and a county clerk in New York blocked the case from proceeding, citing New York law.
In a statement, acting Clerk Taylor Bruck said she refused “this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office.”
