by Mitti Hicks
September 9, 2025
The decision comes a month after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York county court for refusing to file a six-figure judgment against a doctor accused of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas woman.
New York Attorney General Letitia James says she will intervene in a legal fight brewing over the ban on abortion pills in Texas.
James’s decision comes a little more than a month after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York county court for refusing to file a six-figure judgment against a doctor accused of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas woman, Houston Public Media reports.
“I am stepping in to defend the integrity of our laws and our courts against this blatant overreach,” James said in a news release. “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here.”
In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Paxton called James “a lawless abortionist” and said he will defeat her in court.
Texas has some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. It almost entirely bans abortions and imposes heavy penalties on people who violate its abortion laws. State law prohibits nearly all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. There are exceptions for medical emergencies that threaten the life of the mother if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Doctors who perform abortions in violation of the law face felony charges and potential imprisonment.
Texas Sues NY Doctor Over Abortion Pills
Abortions are still occurring in Texas because of the availability of mail-order abortion medication through telehealth providers in states with abortion shield laws, which is why James is jumping into the legal fight with Texas.
In December 2024, Paxton sued Dr. Margaret Carpenter, accusing her of mailing abortion pills from New York to a woman in Collin County, Texas. Carpenter is the co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which ultimately gets abortion medicine to women in states with shield laws.
In February, a Collin County judge ordered Carpenter to stop providing abortion pills to Texans and pay more than $113,000 in penalties and fees. Then, in March, Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck refused to file the judgment in New York, citing his state’s shield laws, which were passed in 2023 following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Shield law protections exist in over 20 states and legally protect health care professionals from living in states with abortion bans.
Paxton then sued Bruck, arguing in court that New York’s shield laws violate the U.S. Constitution’s full faith and credit clause, requiring states to respect “pubic acts, records, and judicial proceedings.” As for James, she plans to submit legal filings arguing that New York has the right to safeguard its residents and courts against “out-of-state overreach.”
“Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state extremists, and New York will always stand strong as a safe haven for health care and freedom of choice,” said James.
This comes as the Texas legislature advanced a bill that allows private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures or distributes abortion drugs to or from the state.
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