New Abortion Battle Opening Up Over State Shield Laws

The national abortion battle is moving to a new front, and it’s one that stretches across state lines. A telemedicine abortion provider in New York has thrust the state’s abortion shield law into the spotlight, setting the stage for an unprecedented state-against-state clash on one of the nation’s  most divisive issues. Dr. Maggie Carpenter of New Paltz, New York, was fined in Texas and charged in Louisiana for providing abortion pills to patients in the two states, where the procedure is all but banned. Judge Bryan Gantt of Collin County, Texas, ordered Carpenter to pay $100,000 in penalties, plus attorney’s fees, for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas in violation of Texas law. He also barred the doctor from prescribing abortion medication to future Texas patients....