On Thursday, a New York county clerk refused to file a Texas court judgment of over $100,000 against a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas.
“New York is grateful for his courage and common sense,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said on Thursday in response to the county clerk’s decision to reject the filing of the judgment.
The case centers on Margaret Carpenter, a physician based in New York. In December 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil lawsuit against her, alleging that she had violated Texas law by prescribing abortion medication via telemedicine to a patient in Texas. After Carpenter and her attorney failed to respond or appear at a hearing in early 2025, a Texas judge issued a default judgment in February, ordering her to pay over $100,000 in penalties and prohibiting her from prescribing abortion pills to Texas residents. According to the Austin American-Statesman, the amount owed will accrue daily interest at a rate of 7.5 percent until paid in full.
In March, the Texas Attorney General’s office attempted to enforce the judgment in New York. Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck rejected the request, citing the state’s shield law. “In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office,” Bruck said in a statement.
Texas’s case targeting Carpenter now marks a landmark challenge to one of eight shield laws passed across the country which are designed to protect telemedicine abortion providers from legal actions and extradition requests by states with restrictive abortion bans. Such laws also prohibit state officials from cooperating with out-of-state court orders related to abortion care.
“New York’s shield law was created to protect patients and providers from out-of-state anti-choice attacks, and we will not allow anyone to undermine health care providers’ ability to deliver necessary care to their patients,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “My office will always defend New York’s medical professionals and the people they serve.”
Texas is the first state with an abortion ban to pursue legal action against an out-of-state provider protected by a shield law. Louisiana followed shortly after, filing the first criminal charges against the same abortion provider. In February, Hochul invoked the shield law to block an extradition request from Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who sought to have Carpenter transferred to face those charges. However, because extradition decisions more so fall under executive discretion, the Texas judgment — not Louisiana’s request — represents the first significant legal test of New York’s shield law.
Paxton, meanwhile, denounced the New York clerk’s refusal to enforce the Texas judgment. He said he was “outraged” by Bruck’s decision to shield what he called a “radical abortionist” accused of “illegally peddling dangerous drugs across state lines.”
In addition to targeting out-of-state providers, Paxton has recently pursued criminal charges against providers within Texas. His office has charged practitioners with illegally performing abortions — a second-degree felony — and practicing medicine without a license, a third-degree felony. These prosecutions are the first brought under Texas’s near-total abortion ban.
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