A New York county clerk on Thursday blocked Texas from submitting a authorized motion in opposition to a New York physician for prescribing and sending abortion capsules to a Texas lady.

The unprecedented transfer catapults the interstate abortion wars to a brand new degree, setting the stage for a high-stakes authorized battle between states that ban abortion and states that assist abortion rights.

The dispute is broadly anticipated to achieve the Supreme Courtroom, pitting Texas, which has a near-total abortion ban, in opposition to New York, which has a defend legislation that’s meant to guard abortion suppliers who ship medicines to sufferers in different states.

New York is one in all eight states which have enacted “telemedicine abortion defend legal guidelines” after the Supreme Courtroom overturned the nationwide proper to an abortion in 2022. The legal guidelines stop officers from extraditing abortion suppliers to different states or from responding to subpoenas and different authorized actions — a stark departure from typical interstate practices of cooperating in such circumstances.

The motion by the New York county clerk is the primary time that an abortion defend legislation has been used to refuse the enforcement of an out-of-state judgment.

This case includes Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter of New Paltz, N.Y., who works with telemedicine abortion organizations to offer abortion capsules to sufferers throughout the nation. In December, the Texas legal professional basic, Ken Paxton, sued Dr. Carpenter, who will not be licensed in Texas, accusing her of sending abortion capsules to a Texas lady, in violation of the state’s ban.

Dr. Carpenter and her legal professionals didn’t reply to the lawsuit and didn’t present up for a courtroom listening to final month in Texas. Decide Bryan Gantt of Collin County District Courtroom issued a default judgment, ordering Dr. Carpenter to pay a penalty of $113,000 and to cease sending abortion treatment to Texas.

On Thursday, citing New York’s defend legislation, the appearing clerk of Ulster County in Kingston, N.Y., Taylor Bruck, stated he wouldn’t grant Texas’ movement searching for to implement the Collin County order. He additionally refused to permit Texas to file a summons that sought to pressure Dr. Carpenter to pay the penalty and adjust to the Texas ruling.

“In accordance with the New York State Protect Regulation, I’ve refused this submitting and can refuse any related filings which will come to our workplace,” Mr. Bruck stated in an announcement. “Since this choice is prone to end in additional litigation, I need to chorus from discussing particular particulars concerning the state of affairs.”

Mr. Paxton, the Texas legal professional basic, vowed to press on. “I’m outraged that New York would refuse to permit Texas to pursue enforcement of a civil judgment in opposition to a radical abortionist illegally peddling harmful medication throughout state strains,” he stated in an announcement. “New York is shredding the Structure to cover lawbreakers from justice, and it should finish. I cannot cease my efforts to implement Texas’s pro-life legal guidelines that defend our unborn kids and moms.”

Authorized specialists stated {that a} possible subsequent step could be for Texas to file a problem to the defend legislation in a state or federal courtroom in New York.

New York’s legal professional basic, Letitia James, had beforehand despatched steerage to courts and officers all through the state, directing them to observe the defend legislation and indicating how they may comply and which particular actions have been prohibited.

“I commend the Ulster County Clerk for doing what is true,” Ms. James stated in an announcement. “New York’s defend legislation was created to guard sufferers and suppliers from out-of-state anti-choice assaults, and we won’t enable anybody to undermine well being care suppliers’ skill to ship obligatory care to their sufferers. My workplace will at all times defend New York’s medical professionals and the individuals they serve.”

Texas was the primary state with an abortion ban to provoke authorized motion in opposition to abortion suppliers in states with defend legal guidelines. In January, the primary felony costs in opposition to a shield-law abortion supplier have been filed in a second state, Louisiana. In that case, a state grand jury issued a felony indictment, additionally in opposition to Dr. Carpenter, accusing her of violating Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban by sending capsules to that state.

Final month, Louisiana officers issued an extradition order for Dr. Carpenter, which was instantly rebuffed by New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul.

“I cannot be signing an extradition order that got here from the governor of Louisiana — not now, not ever,” Ms. Hochul stated then.

Dr. Carpenter and her legal professionals haven’t commented about both the Texas or Louisiana case. The Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a company Dr. Carpenter co-founded, has issued statements in response to the circumstances. “Protect legal guidelines are important in safeguarding and enabling abortion care no matter a affected person’s ZIP code or skill to pay,” the coalition has stated. “They’re basic to making sure everybody can entry reproductive well being care as a human proper.”

Telemedicine abortion defend legal guidelines have turn into a key technique for supporters of abortion rights. Underneath these legal guidelines, which have been in use since summer season 2023, well being care suppliers in states the place abortion is authorized have been sending greater than 10,000 abortion capsules per 30 days to sufferers in states with abortion bans or restrictions.

The Texas lawsuit accuses Dr. Carpenter of offering a 20-year-old lady with the 2 medicines utilized in a regular abortion routine, mifepristone and misoprostol. Usually used up by means of 12 weeks into being pregnant, mifepristone blocks a hormone wanted for pregnancies to develop, and misoprostol, taken 24 to 48 hours later, causes contractions much like a miscarriage.

In accordance with a criticism filed by the Texas legal professional basic’s workplace, the girl, who had been 9 weeks pregnant, requested the “organic father of her unborn baby” to take her to the emergency room in July “due to hemorrhage or extreme bleeding.” The person “suspected that the organic mom had actually performed one thing to contribute to the miscarriage,” the go well with stated, and he went again to their dwelling in Collin County, the place he “found the 2 above-referenced medicines from Carpenter.”

Within the Collin County courtroom listening to final month, Ernest C. Garcia, chief of the executive legislation division within the legal professional basic’s workplace, stated that the person “then filed a criticism with the Texas Lawyer Common’s Workplace.”

A New York county clerk on Thursday blocked Texas from submitting a authorized motion in opposition to a New York physician for prescribing and sending abortion capsules to a Texas lady.

The unprecedented transfer catapults the interstate abortion wars to a brand new degree, setting the stage for a high-stakes authorized battle between states that ban abortion and states that assist abortion rights.

The dispute is broadly anticipated to achieve the Supreme Courtroom, pitting Texas, which has a near-total abortion ban, in opposition to New York, which has a defend legislation that’s meant to guard abortion suppliers who ship medicines to sufferers in different states.

New York is one in all eight states which have enacted “telemedicine abortion defend legal guidelines” after the Supreme Courtroom overturned the nationwide proper to an abortion in 2022. The legal guidelines stop officers from extraditing abortion suppliers to different states or from responding to subpoenas and different authorized actions — a stark departure from typical interstate practices of cooperating in such circumstances.

The motion by the New York county clerk is the primary time that an abortion defend legislation has been used to refuse the enforcement of an out-of-state judgment.

This case includes Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter of New Paltz, N.Y., who works with telemedicine abortion organizations to offer abortion capsules to sufferers throughout the nation. In December, the Texas legal professional basic, Ken Paxton, sued Dr. Carpenter, who will not be licensed in Texas, accusing her of sending abortion capsules to a Texas lady, in violation of the state’s ban.

Dr. Carpenter and her legal professionals didn’t reply to the lawsuit and didn’t present up for a courtroom listening to final month in Texas. Decide Bryan Gantt of Collin County District Courtroom issued a default judgment, ordering Dr. Carpenter to pay a penalty of $113,000 and to cease sending abortion treatment to Texas.

On Thursday, citing New York’s defend legislation, the appearing clerk of Ulster County in Kingston, N.Y., Taylor Bruck, stated he wouldn’t grant Texas’ movement searching for to implement the Collin County order. He additionally refused to permit Texas to file a summons that sought to pressure Dr. Carpenter to pay the penalty and adjust to the Texas ruling.

“In accordance with the New York State Protect Regulation, I’ve refused this submitting and can refuse any related filings which will come to our workplace,” Mr. Bruck stated in an announcement. “Since this choice is prone to end in additional litigation, I need to chorus from discussing particular particulars concerning the state of affairs.”

Mr. Paxton, the Texas legal professional basic, vowed to press on. “I’m outraged that New York would refuse to permit Texas to pursue enforcement of a civil judgment in opposition to a radical abortionist illegally peddling harmful medication throughout state strains,” he stated in an announcement. “New York is shredding the Structure to cover lawbreakers from justice, and it should finish. I cannot cease my efforts to implement Texas’s pro-life legal guidelines that defend our unborn kids and moms.”

Authorized specialists stated {that a} possible subsequent step could be for Texas to file a problem to the defend legislation in a state or federal courtroom in New York.

New York’s legal professional basic, Letitia James, had beforehand despatched steerage to courts and officers all through the state, directing them to observe the defend legislation and indicating how they may comply and which particular actions have been prohibited.

“I commend the Ulster County Clerk for doing what is true,” Ms. James stated in an announcement. “New York’s defend legislation was created to guard sufferers and suppliers from out-of-state anti-choice assaults, and we won’t enable anybody to undermine well being care suppliers’ skill to ship obligatory care to their sufferers. My workplace will at all times defend New York’s medical professionals and the individuals they serve.”

Texas was the primary state with an abortion ban to provoke authorized motion in opposition to abortion suppliers in states with defend legal guidelines. In January, the primary felony costs in opposition to a shield-law abortion supplier have been filed in a second state, Louisiana. In that case, a state grand jury issued a felony indictment, additionally in opposition to Dr. Carpenter, accusing her of violating Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban by sending capsules to that state.

Final month, Louisiana officers issued an extradition order for Dr. Carpenter, which was instantly rebuffed by New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul.

“I cannot be signing an extradition order that got here from the governor of Louisiana — not now, not ever,” Ms. Hochul stated then.

Dr. Carpenter and her legal professionals haven’t commented about both the Texas or Louisiana case. The Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a company Dr. Carpenter co-founded, has issued statements in response to the circumstances. “Protect legal guidelines are important in safeguarding and enabling abortion care no matter a affected person’s ZIP code or skill to pay,” the coalition has stated. “They’re basic to making sure everybody can entry reproductive well being care as a human proper.”

Telemedicine abortion defend legal guidelines have turn into a key technique for supporters of abortion rights. Underneath these legal guidelines, which have been in use since summer season 2023, well being care suppliers in states the place abortion is authorized have been sending greater than 10,000 abortion capsules per 30 days to sufferers in states with abortion bans or restrictions.

The Texas lawsuit accuses Dr. Carpenter of offering a 20-year-old lady with the 2 medicines utilized in a regular abortion routine, mifepristone and misoprostol. Usually used up by means of 12 weeks into being pregnant, mifepristone blocks a hormone wanted for pregnancies to develop, and misoprostol, taken 24 to 48 hours later, causes contractions much like a miscarriage.

In accordance with a criticism filed by the Texas legal professional basic’s workplace, the girl, who had been 9 weeks pregnant, requested the “organic father of her unborn baby” to take her to the emergency room in July “due to hemorrhage or extreme bleeding.” The person “suspected that the organic mom had actually performed one thing to contribute to the miscarriage,” the go well with stated, and he went again to their dwelling in Collin County, the place he “found the 2 above-referenced medicines from Carpenter.”

Within the Collin County courtroom listening to final month, Ernest C. Garcia, chief of the executive legislation division within the legal professional basic’s workplace, stated that the person “then filed a criticism with the Texas Lawyer Common’s Workplace.”