ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill on Monday to protect the anonymity of doctors who prescribe abortion medications. This comes in response to a recent incident in which a physician in New York was charged with providing abortion pills to a pregnant minor in Louisiana. The new law, effective immediately, permits doctors to request that their names be omitted from abortion pill bottles, with only the name of their healthcare practice appearing on medication labels.
The move follows the indictment of New York Dr. Margaret Carpenter and her company by a grand jury in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, for allegedly prescribing abortion pills online to a pregnant minor. This case is believed to be the first instance of criminal charges brought against a doctor for sending abortion pills to another state since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Governor Hochul, a Democrat, announced that she would not approve an extradition request to send Carpenter to Louisiana. She emphasized that the doctor’s name being on the medication label was how authorities in Louisiana identified her, a practice that will now change with the new law.
In Louisiana, prosecutors stated that the minor experienced a medical emergency after taking the medication and had to be hospitalized. The exact stage of the girl’s pregnancy is unknown. The minor’s mother, who was also charged, surrendered to authorities on Friday.
District Attorney Tony Clayton of Louisiana revealed that the arrest warrant for Carpenter is nationwide, implying potential arrest in states with strict anti-abortion laws. Louisiana has imposed a near-total ban on abortion, whereby physicians found guilty of providing abortions, including through pills, could face up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines, and loss of their medical license.
Governor Hochul expressed her intent to advocate for further legislation this year requiring pharmacists to respect doctors’ requests to exclude their names from prescription labels.
Carpenter had previously faced a civil lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general for allegations of sending abortion pills to Texas, though no criminal charges were involved in that case. Abortion pills have become a prevalent method in the U.S., leading to ongoing political and legal disputes in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
___AP writer Sara Cline contributed from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
