Louisiana's Puzzling Prosecution of a New York Abortion Doctor

Prosecutors claim the case is about coercion. So why isn’t that the charge they are bringing?

A New York doctor has been indicted in Louisiana on felony charges for allegedly providing an abortion across state lines via mail. On January 31, a West Baton Rouge Parish grand jury unanimously indicted Margaret Carpenter, a family medicine physician, along with her prescribing practice and a Louisiana mother, for providing abortion-inducing drugs to the mother's underage daughter. This is the first case in which a doctor has been criminally charged for sending abortion-inducing drugs across state lines since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 

Louisiana prosecutors allege the mother threatened to force her pregnant teen daughter out of their home unless she took the pills obtained from Carpenter. After ingesting the medicine, the minor called 911 and was transported to the hospital due to complications.

"She was a minor and…she was excited," said District Attorney Tony Clayton. "She had planned a reveal party. She wanted to have this baby."

Shortly after Carpenter's indictment, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed not to comply with any extradition request to send Carpenter to Louisiana for prosecution. New York's shield law stipulates that courts and officials may not cooperate with states that try to prosecute providers who offer abortion via telemedicine. Hochul then signed a bill into law instituting additional protections that allow for the anonymization of prescribers of abortifacient drugs to avoid personal liability. During the bill signing, the governor proclaimed she would "never back down from this fight" over reproductive rights. 

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who is prosecuting the case, called Hochul "sick and barbaric" for "cheerleading for the alleged coerced abortion of a young girl," asserting that this case isn't about "reproductive health care" but about force. 

Although Murrill is intent on holding individuals accountable for illegally sending abortion pills to Louisiana and "coercing another into having an abortion," neither Carpenter nor the mother have been charged with coerced abortion or any other crime involving coercion. 

Louisiana's abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country, prohibits individuals from performing any abortion, regardless of gestational age and with no exceptions for rape or incest. Violations carry a sentence of one to 10 years, a $10,000 to $100,000 fine, or both. Under Louisiana law, pregnant women, including the minor in the case, are exempt from any prosecution for seeking or obtaining an abortion.

Carpenter and the mother, however, were not indicted under the abortion ban, but under a separate Louisiana law that criminalizes the delivering, dispensing, distributing, or providing a pregnant woman with an abortion-inducing drug and knowingly causing an abortion. (This method made up 63 percent of abortions nationwide in 2023.) 

Depending on the circumstances, those convicted for abortion by means of an abortifacient drug could face anywhere between one to 50 years in prison, a $1,000 to $100,000 fine, or both. 

Confusingly, Louisiana officials, including Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, have asserted "this case is about coercion. Plain and Simple." But the statute Carpenter and the mother have been indicted under has nothing to do with coercion. Rather, coerced abortion is a completely different crime in the Louisiana code and covers the use of or threatened use of force to compel a woman to undergo an abortion, including drug-induced abortion. 

There is still another crime for coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud that specifically includes the use of abortifacient drugs on a pregnant woman without her knowledge or consent. Despite these options, prosecutors haven't made any amendment to include a charge of coercion against Carpenter or the mother. 

Coerced and nonconsensual abortion are allegations that should be taken seriously by both sides of the abortion debate. Such an act is a crime whether or not abortion is illegal because it clearly violates the rights of the pregnant woman. If coercion is truly at the heart of this case, prosecutors should treat it that way by amending the indictment. 

Instead of focusing on potential wrongs committed against the teenage daughter, Louisiana has chosen to pursue a legal showdown against New York's shield laws and double down on a drug prohibition scheme that is doomed to fail like other drug prohibition schemes that have come before it. 

Comments

[Longtobefree]

"Prosecutors claim the case is about coercion. So why isn’t that the charge they are bringing?"

For the same reason none of the mostly peaceful protesters on J6 were not charged with insurrection.
Proving an action took place, mailing the pills or trespassing, is much easier than proving thoughts or intent, coercion or insurrection.
Prosecutors are promoted for convictions, not for charging according to what you think should be charged.

[con_fuse9]

Wow the J6 morons still can't figure it out.
They were in a place were they weren't allowed at the time and tried to disrupt the government. Most were charged with trespassing. Seems to fit perfectly. Because most were peaceful, they got a slap on the wrist. Some community service.

[mulched]

No reason why a doctor shouldn't be able to prescribe life-altering drugs for someone in a different state who fills out an online form.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

And said doctor shouldn't have to know relevant laws they are shipping to. Like other products.

[MollyGodiva]

Freedom and personal choice over their own body? That good enough?

[con_fuse9]

Again, that is not what the doctor is being charged with.
And yes, welcome to the 21st century where safe drugs, with limited or known side effects are prescribed (and even sent in the mail) remotely.

[Mockamodo]

I thought they were prescription drugs, does that mean I can get a prescription for Valium from a Dr in another state via phone call or email? And how is the Dr doing the prescribed follow up? Sounds to me like the Dr is practicing malpractice.

[Mickey Rat]

It seems that abortion pills are not all that safe without medical supervision.

[mad.casual]

I know it's probably part of some secret cover up, that's why it must not be obvious from looking back at all of human history, but simply getting pregnant is not itself a risk-free proposition.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

It's not about the law or even really about the crime. It's about starting a fight.

[defaultdotxbe]

Deleted

[windycityattorney]

While you are true it is about starting a fight; it is also about the law. Because LA law purports to criminalize the actions of a NY Doctor prescribing or rather administering (via mail) an FDA approved drug.

So this has lots of potentially conflicting and overlapping legal doctrines at play. Its like a law school exam question from hell. Can LA criminalize out of state actors for actions (that are presumably legal in that jurisdiction) taken in a foreign state jurisdiction (probably? the act of mailing the pills into LA could trigger jurisdiction presumably?). Can LA pierce the shield law and have it declared void (likely not). Does the LA law conflict with FDA policy and could it be preempted? (I don't know). What happens to an unenforceable warrant/indictment if LA cannot successfully pierce the shield law? Do any other states have to honor LA's indictment/warrant if the doctor is present in those jurisdictions? Just a whole host of issues.

[Mickey Rat]

There is mounting evidence that these drugs shoukd not be administered without close medical supervision, and the FDA approval without it was a politicized decision.

[windycityattorney]

No those are allegations by the anti-abortion lobby that wants use of the pills to be criminalized. To my understanding, the abortion pills have been administered millions of times (both here and abroad) and yes there are adverse events, but they are rare and well within the parameters or safety protocols of many other drugs.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

So they should have medical oversight in case of complications which the online doctor provides with hospital admitting privelege in whatever town that connects to the internet?

[windycityattorney]

I am sure the drug comes with instructions and warnings like every other drug. including OTC drugs. I think the assumption that a Louisiana minor can read might be the bridge too far. Maybe they should focus on that instead of passing stupid laws?

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

You avoided completely my question. There are two recent cases of death caused by these pills.

[SQRLSY]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

Death by drinking too much water... ALSO by not drinking ENOUGH water!!!

Water, obliviously, needs to be BY PRESCRIPTION ONLY!!!!

[Jefferson Paul]

A pretty good fake, but accurate, website calling for the banning of dihydrogen monoxide (H2O). I used it to get my cooky aunt on board with the ban, until I finally revealed that it's water.

https://www.dhmo.org/truth/Dihydrogen-Monoxide.html

[Social Justice is neither]

They are from Kermit Gosnel's neighborhood so oversight and care about the women undergoing abortions are a distant concern in those parts.

[Lester75]

Uh... Just like Viagra which can have deadly cardiac effects? You can buy Viagra online with telemedicine too.

These drugs are as safe as other well-tested, long-prescribed meds that are available online. The objections to them are not medical, but religious.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

Whats a few extra dead bodies on top of the dead babies. Death for everyone.

And with every maternal death from lack of supervision you get to blame state laws for it!

[neurodoc]

Your concern for the safety of this abortifacient regimen notwithstanding the support of it by the relevant medical and scientific communities, as well as FDA reviewers is impressive. Are you aware that there is a great deal more morbidity and mortality associated with going to term with a pregnancy is many times greater than that experienced by users of this prescription regimen? Of course not, because you are totally disingenuous about your true concerns.

[Jefferson Paul]

My stance on these abortifacient drugs aside, appealing to the authority of the "medical and scientific communities" on this won't work. Those communities also consider it child abuse not to affirm a minor's alternative gender, giving them puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or even cutting off healthy organs that don't align with the child's "preferred gender."

Somehow, I doubt you came to your stance for the safety of individuals taking these abortion pills as "there is a great deal more morbidity and mortality" with going to term with a pregnancy. I suspect that even if these pills were far more dangerous than bringing the pregnancy to term, you'd still be in favor of the abortion pills being widely available since the issue for you is the right to choose to terminate the pregnancy, not avoiding the perils of giving birth.

[mad.casual]

In fairness, there is virtually no tool or drug that activists cannot beat, poison, stab, electrocute, asphyxiate, or drown someone to death with in the name of their cause.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

Zyn is approved by the FDA now. California does not allow certain flavors. So sites will not ship to certain locations with those bans. This is very very common.

Are you sure you're a lawyer?

[windycityattorney]

And how many out of state shippers of Zyn has California indicted for criminal charges carrying mandatory prison? How many of those state's where shippers are located have passed shield laws protecting Zyn shippers from California legal process?

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

How many deaths have been caused?

But you want a civil example? Google California eggs.

I'm really struggling with you being a lawyer here. Not all regulatory policy at the state level is criminal. Except if you're Trump in NYC.

Drugs tend to have criminal attachments on top of civil. The LA law is criminal. If it was civil it wouldn't be a criminal charge. A lawyer would know this.

I mean I can point to all the criminal charges at the state level for out of state tobacco if it makes it more clear.

[windycityattorney]

What the fuck are you talking about? We are discussing this LA law and indictment of a NY doctor for sending FDA approved drugs in the mail and the fact that NY has a shield law protecting the NY doctor from LA legal process. Try to stay focused.

Most people haven't even focused on the mom's indictment. Is she a single mother? Is LA going to be make the minor child a ward of the state and send her mom to prison? What a brilliant use of taxpayer funds for the moral crusaders. /s

[defaultdotxbe]

Ironic for a state that sues out of state businesses for shipping gun parts across state lines.

[damikesc]

If the drug causes massive problems --- which it has several times in the past --- how does the victim get restitution?

[MWAocdoc]

"I do not think that word 'force' you are using means what you think it means!"

[Bill Godshall]

Seems like those who ban (and campaign for banning) abortion and contraception are freedom hating/denying theocrats who have (for hundreds of years) been banning everyone else from doing things that offend their religious beliefs, including;
- denying the existence of god,
- working on Sundays,
- homosexuality,
- interracial marriage/dating,
- nudity (even art),
- pornography,
- prostitution,
- gambling,
- alcohol,
- tobacco,
- opium,
- cocaine,
- psychodelics, and even
- dancing.

[Mickey Rat]

Not to mention murder, stealing, and perjury/fraud.

The "theocrat" is just a really brain dead argument from libertines who just want to cause harm without consequence.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

The "libertines" is just a really brain dead argument from theocrats who just want to impose their moral views on everyone else.

[mad.casual]

freedom hating/denying theocrats

The largest threats to freedom *and* human life... by orders of magnitude... came, and objectively will continue to come, from predominantly non-theological sources, but supporters of those causes will continue to blame the outcomes on everyone and everything other than themselves. Because like a historically-retarded late-20th/early 21st Century abortive mother, "Fuck Around and Find Out" is too complicated a notion for them to understand.

[Liberty_Belle]

Yes, because thousands of years of bloodshed, conflict, and persecution was done by pro-choicers and not religious fanatics / enablers.

[DesigNate]

Actually it was done by nation-states (usually some kind of tyrant king) who wanted other peoples shit.

Of course even those pale in comparison to the industrialized death the mid-20th century atheist states were able to inflict on their own people for being double plus ungood.

[damikesc]

Atheists, in one century, dwarfed the killings of millenia in religious conflicts.

Take a bow, I guess.

[Liberty_Belle]

https://infidels.org/kiosk/article/the-fallacy-of-the-20th-century-atheist-regimes/

The Fallacy of the "20th Century Atheist Regimes"

[Gaear Grimsrud]

And don't forget the big clown scare a couple years back.

[Bill Godshall]

If more women had abortions in New Orleans, crime, incarcerations, arrests, and welfare payments would all decline.

While Democrats rely upon expanding the failed welfare state, seems like abortion banning Republican theocrats want to further increase crime, incarcerations, arrests and welfare payments (that are caused by unwanted and fatherless children).

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

Killing babies is a good business decision right? So let's extend your theory and just kill all people on welfare and criminals.

[SQRLSY]

Just kill ALL of the Demon-Crap voters, since their votes are ALL fraudulent, says JesseBahnFarter-Fuhrer and the Trumpanzees gone apeshit!

HANG MIKE PENCE and execute general Milley, without trails!!!!

They and udder offenders have STOLEN THE ERECTIONS of Dear Leader, after all!!!

[TJJ2000]

Ya know... That 'baby' that completely exists only in your Pro-Life BS indoctrinated imagination?

Otherwise; You could support the Individual Liberty (existence) of the 'baby' you speak of as a distinct entity and support fetal ejection.

But you'll keep yelling "babies" and "killing" till you end up shooting REAL people not just made-up people in your own Pro-Life Religious indoctrinated diluted imagination.

[mad.casual]

So are you supporting the payment policies to single mothers here or are advocating for the killing of more children? Because either way, you make the people who just want to ban dancing in their little backwater Quaker town, while allowing prom to take place in the old mill just across the county line, seem pretty harmless, if not fantastically fictional.

[TJJ2000]

What 'children'?? ........ FFS out of all the complete BS out there; this fairy-tale 'baby', 'children' blah, blah, blah is the most retarded of all.

[damikesc]

Hell, if we just shot pregnant women in the head, they'd drop EVEN further.

Bill Godshall comes out in favor of murdering pregnant women. For society!

[Bill Godshall]

Simply allowing women to exercise their natural, human and civil right to control their own bodies is NOT the same as murder.

If abortion was/is actually murder, millions of women worldwide (in countries with the death penalty) would have been arrested, prosecuted, convicted, incarcerated and then executed for having an abortion (and millions more women would now be in prison for having an abortion in nations that outlaw the death penalty).

But since abortion isn't considered murder in the US or any other civilized nation, women haven't been executed or imprisoned, nor even arrested for murder.

[Ben of Houston]

Look. I normally don't like taking sides in this debate.

However, I will not tolerate Nazi arguments to go unchallenged.

Promoting abortion as a method of social benefit is just that. Social Darwinism and Eugenics.

If you accept that the fetus is a child, this argument is simply evil.

My advice, stick to the clump of cells tactic. Advocating for murder of the lower classes as a social good is not a rabbit hole you want to go down.

[TJJ2000]

Isn't that EXACTLY what Pro-Life is doing in their sick the 'gun' packing law-enforcement onto anyone who commits the moral crime of refusing to reproduce after sex?

Just call it Religious 'Moral Social Benefit' Social Darwinism and you've got a direct link.

[Ben of Houston]

What are you talking about?
NO ONE is coming for contraception. That is merely a fever dream of the left created because they needed to escalate tension for their imagined drama of oppression by the right.

Abortion is about the definition of murder. It is no more about religion than the law against burglary.

[TJJ2000]

What act of 'murder' happens during a fetal ejection???
Yelling 'murder' without any aggressive act isn't murder.

If you cannot support ?baby? freedom (i.e. fetal ejection)
UR supporting Gov-Gun FORCED reproduction.

Pro-Life doesn't even pitch laws about their statement of concern.
If they're really about stopping murder they'd allow fetal ejection.

[Bill Godshall]

Wrong, acknowledging the many societal benefits of abortion is NOT Nazism.

For decades, the data (from many different cities, states and nations) consistently confirms that fatherless children are far more likely (than children with fathers) to drop out of school, get arrested, become incarcerated, be unemployed, and receive government welfare.

[Liberty_Belle]

Oh look, it's that thing they said couldn't happen / wouldn't happen / we shouldn't worry about.

Everybody not blind or delusional knew it was only a matter of time before authoritarian bible thumpers found something juicy that they could make hay of to get a trial pushed up to a favorable SCOTUS. Here we go.

[MWAocdoc]

I'm not even a little bit puzzled about the charges in this case. It seems pretty obvious to me that it is an intentional tactic of misdirection in the form of prosecutorial abuse.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

What abuse? The La law is actually pretty damn clear. The doctor, likely an activist, is operating in a commercial transaction in violation of state laws.

[TJJ2000]

So shouldn't LA be locking up the mother and her teenage daughter????

[Libertarian_420]

This isn't puzzling at all, they are trying anything and everything to end access to abortion by whatever means possible. Frankly it's a massive abuse of rights of women and girls and privacy of medical decisions

[TJJ2000]

It is......... but, but, but magical fairy-tale unicorns are dying!!! /s

It's actually worse than, "but what about the children" BS excuse.
Because there aren't any 'children' even in the equation.

[Ben of Houston]

You assume your conclusion.

If you interpret that a fetus is a child with human rights, then this has nothing whatsoever to do with women's rights. It's simply a law about murder.

Talking about women's rights is a distraction to avoid the difficult "when does a fetus become a human with rights" argument, which is completely arbitrary.

[TJJ2000]

The only 'murder' defined by lack of one's own body organ donation.
Next-up; Every one who won't donate their body organs are murderers.

It doesn't become a human with rights until it's a distinct Individual and the very definition of the word Individual is 'separate' no matter how much incoherent BS one's religion wants to buy.

[Lester75]

^^upvote

[Dillinger]

>>Prosecutors claim the case is about coercion.

>>Murrill is intent on holding individuals accountable for illegally sending abortion pills to Louisiana and ... neither Carpenter nor the mother have been charged with coerced abortion or any other crime involving coercion.

>>Autumn Billings is an assistant editor at Reason.

Autumn maybe let someone else read your work before post. I recommend someone not at Reason lol

[mulched]

When everyone is an editor, no one is.

[TJJ2000]

Nor are they prosecuting the Mother and Daughter who BROKE the Law.
They're just hunting down out-of-state suppliers.

[Dillinger]

idk if you can coerce your child in Louisiana. I'm not a defense lawyer and don't have time to play around in Louisiana code but it seems like if you're the child's agent only you would be the criminal if a criminal act took place

[DRM]

There's nothing in the least unusual, let along confusing, about a prosecutor protecting a victim of a crime (particularly a vulnerable minor) from being required to testify (and be cross-examined) in court about how they were victimized, by the method of filing lesser charges against a criminal that can be proven without the victim's testimony.

What on a first glance is confusing is that a woman with a "J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School", who "previously worked in the fields of criminal justice and criminal justice reform", would apparently lack the knowledge of the legal system to know that.

Of course, it's less confusing if you assume that woman, instead of lacking that knowledge, was knowingly, deliberately, and consciously lying when she claimed it was confusing.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

I would not describe myself as hard core pro life per the current definition but I am absolutely a pro natalist. If this woman/child wanted to make this baby, something she is biologically designed to do, and she was prevented from doing so for political reasons it's just a god damned shame.

[Liberty_Belle]

Political reasons ?

It's probably as simple as the mom didn't want her to ruin her early life by having a baby she wasn't ready to have / take care of. Wanting to keep a baby is different from having the ability to take care of a baby. Probably shouldn't have been sexually active in the first place and/or should have been educated on prevention before it became a crisis. As typical, details not included.

[TJJ2000]

Lock up mommy for 50-Years!!! /s

[Daddyhill]

I wouldn't be surprised if Louisiana or any other state decrees that an abortion provided to a minor is coerced by definition, since minors could be seen as unable to give informed consent. I guess the only thing I can do is to add Louisiana to my list of states in which I will spend no time or money. Currently, the others are Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Mississippi, and Alabama. They are on my list for a number of reasons, not just abortion policy. As I've said before, with the hat tip to Phil Ochs, "Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of, Louisiana [or fill in the blank] find yourself another country to be part of."

[JeremyR]

How is this even remotely puzzling? The girl wanted the baby, but her mother didn't, so the mother conspired with the doctor to force the abortion pill on her daughter.

[TJJ2000]

Abortion pills aren't illegal in NY so what-ever conspiring narrative you want to play the NY doctor didn't break State Law. The Mother and Daughter are the only State Law breakers.

[TJJ2000]

WHO took the pill and violated the State law?

When you buy illegal fireworks and transport them to your own home state they don't run over to the other state and try to shut-down the fireworks stand.

They prosecute YOU for carrying in illegal fireworks and using them.

[TJJ2000]

Time to start hanging Mothers and Daughters to save the 'unicorn'! /s
Pro-Life is soooooooooo STUPID.

[AT]

Instead of focusing on potential wrongs committed against the teenage daughter, Louisiana has chosen to pursue a legal showdown against New York's shield laws and double down on a drug prohibition scheme that is doomed to fail like other drug prohibition schemes that have come before it.

Because coerced abortions are less of a problem in America than its abortion-enablers. You don't even have to imagine it - you can see it plain as day, how New York seeks to subvert the Will of the People of Louisiana.

The sheer arrogance of these "we're your betters" blue megacities. And for you losertarians, Autumn - aren't you the party of "mind your own business?" And yet you don't have a problem at all with New York meddling in Louisiana's business?

[Ama Valde Intellectum]

Weird writing style, DO you know what the law says or not 🙂
Coercion is a huge problem and that is assumed
Hidden Epidemic: Nearly 70% of Abortions Are Coerced, Unwanted or Inconsistent With Women’s Preferences

David C. Reardon, Ph.D.

Katherine Rafferty, Ph.D., M.A.

Tessa Cox
May 15, 2023

Now you don't like the law but you are afraid to say "Good to disobey the law" l--- you just don't make any sense.

[Lester75]

Poppycock. After an abortion the most common emotional response is: relief.