On Feb. 3, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill protecting the privacy of health care providers who prescribe abortion pills. This bill strengthens New York’s existing telehealth shield law by allowing healthcare providers to put the name of their practices on their abortion pill prescriptions instead of their personal names.
“Reproductive freedom will always be protected in the State of New York,” Hochul said at a press conference. “At a time when fundamental rights are under attack across the country, we are doubling down on our commitment to safeguard access to reproductive health care and defend those on the frontlines of this battle.”
“This legislation represents a renewal of our collective commitment to women across the country and to the brave doctors who are providing them care,” State Senator Shelley Mayer said at the same conference.
Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, several states, including New York, passed shield laws that forbid officials from cooperating with other state’s efforts to penalize abortion pill providers. Hochul’s new protection enhances New York’s shield law by allowing health care providers to request that dispensing pharmacies list the name of the providers’ practices, rather than their personal names, on prescription labels for mifepristone, misoprostol and similar medications.
The new legislation came just days after the Jan. 31 indictment of Dr. Margaret Carpenter by a Louisiana grand jury. Carpenter is a practicing physician in New Paltz and co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, an organization which advocates for more state legislation shielding abortion providers from civil or criminal liability and helps clinicians launch telemedicine abortion practices. She is facing charges for prescribing and providing abortion pills to a resident in Louisiana, where there is a near-total ban on abortion with no exceptions for incest or rape. Physicians who perform illegal abortions face up to $200,000 in fines, 15 years in prison and the loss of their medical licence.
This case appears to be the first time since the Dobbs decision that criminal charges have been brought up against a healthcare provider for sending abortion pills to someone in a state with an abortion ban. Last December, the attorney general of Texas sued Carpenter for providing abortion pills to a woman in Collin County, Texas, but no criminal charges were involved. A Texas judge has since ordered Carpenter to pay a $100,000 fine and stop sending abortion pills to the state.
The New Paltz Town Board passed a resolution at a Board meeting on Feb. 6 in support of Carpenter. In the resolution, the Board “recognizes the courage and compassion” of Carpenter and “stands with Dr. Carpenter in her commitment to providing urgently needed health care to women regardless of where they live.” The resolution also thanks Hochul for her commitment to protecting New Yorkers’ civil rights. Hochul has said that she will block orders from Louisiana to extradite Carpenter.
The resolution “was important to say,” New Paltz Town Supervisor Amanda Gotto said last Wednesday. “Here we are trying to defend our rights, our autonomy, our access to medical care […] and here’s a person who’s really doing something about it, you know. It’s just really inspiring.”