Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking legal action against a New York county clerk for refusing to file a judgment and court summons against a doctor who allegedly prescribed and mailed abortion medication to a woman in Texas.
Paxton’s office has submitted a petition seeking a writ of mandamus to force Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck to enforce the judgment against the doctor and ensure she pays the Texas penalty, according to a statement.
Bruck confirmed to The Hill that the attorney general’s office has tried to file documents related to the case.
Paxton sued New York doctor Margaret Carpenter in December for allegedly violating the state’s abortion ban after she prescribed and mailed abortion pills to a 20-year-old Texas woman.
A Texas judge ordered Carpenter to pay more than $100,000 in penalties for prescribing the medication but neither she nor her attorney appeared at a court hearing or responded to the lawsuit.
The attorney general’s office then urged the Ulster County clerk’s office to enforce the civil judgment in March and requested it authorize the collection of the penalties. Bruck refused to do either, arguing that New York’s shield law protected Carpenter from either action.
Earlier this month, Paxton’s office asked Bruck to enforce the judgment and penalties again, and the clerk refused to do so a second time.
“The rejection stands. Resubmitting the same materials does not alter the outcome,” Bruck said in a statement.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and the state’s Attorney General Letitia James have stood firm on their position to protect Carpenter from extradition or other legal ramifications for providing abortion medication to a patient located outside the state.
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has repeatedly tried to file a judgment against a New York doctor and our response has been clear: hell no,” Hochul said in a statement Monday.
New York is one of 18 states that have enacted an abortion shield law, along with Washington D.C., Lizzy Hinkley, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Time magazine.
These laws are meant to provide abortion providers with some form of protection for providing care to patients who live in states with restrictions on abortion.
