Letitia James is a lawless abortionist who is obsessed with killing babies and weaponizing her office for her political career. I will defeat her in court. – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
As they say, things are really heating up in the fight over whether abortionists in blue states can use their “shield” law to ship abortion pills into pro-life states without fear of being sued. Shield law cropped up in multiple pro-abortion states after Dobbs overturned Roe in 2022 to “increase access” in pro-life states such as Texas and Louisiana.
And “There is growing evidence that shield laws are providing robust access to abortion in states that ban it,” according to Pam Belluck, who “covers reproductive health” for the New York Times.
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James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for National Right to Life, told Belluck that shield-law proponents are “stark, ravingly mad pro-aborts” and accused them of “immunizing bad behavior.”
Under the headline “States Heading Toward Constitutional Showdown Over Abortion Shield Laws,”
“A looming constitutional battle between Texas and New York is the leading edge of the escalating states’ rights fight over the prescribing and mailing of abortion pills to patients in states with bans.”
Her opening catches the primary issues:
America’s battle over abortion has entered an intense phase of legal maneuvering over a deeply fraught issue of states’ rights: Whether states must honor one another’s abortion laws. …
Officials in those shield-law states are prevented from obeying subpoenas, extradition requests and other legal actions that states with bans take against abortion providers. That is a stark departure from typical interstate practices of cooperating in legal matters. {Emphasis added.}
Pelluck believes the issue will make its way to the Supreme Court, a likely prospect. What ups the ante is that pro-abortion New York Attorney General Letitia James, announced that she will intervene in a case filed in December by Paxton in New York.
“I am stepping in to defend the integrity of our laws and our courts against this blatant overreach,” said James in a news release. “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here.”
Background
In 2024 Paxton sued New York abortionist Margaret Carpenter who mailed abortion pills –mifepristone–to a Texas woman which resulted in the death of an unborn child and serious medical complications for the mother.
Last month, for the second time, Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck (New York) said he would not grant Texas’ motion that sought to enforce the order of State District Judge Bryan Gantt of Collin County District Court in Texas to Carpenter to pay a penalty of over $100,000 and to stop sending abortion pills into Texas. In March, Bruck had refused an initial request to file the judgment.
He was solidly backed by pro-abortion New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and by James.
According to a press release from Paxton’s office
Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued cease-and-desist letters to multiple radical organizations demanding an immediate end to the unlawful advertising, sale, and shipment of abortion-inducing drugs into the State of Texas.
This legal action follows two tragic cases in Texas in which radical abortion activists and organizations facilitated men illegally purchasing abortion-inducing drugs. According to one lawsuit, a man used the drugs to poison his girlfriend, causing the death of their unborn child, and sending the mother to the hospital. Organizations like Plan C and Her Safe Harbor advertise abortion pills by mail and promise delivery to Texas within days, likely in violation of both the federal Comstock Act and multiple provisions of Texas law, including the Human Life Protection Act.
“Texas will not tolerate the murdering of innocent life through illegal drug trafficking,” said Attorney General Paxton. “These abortion drug organizations and radical activists are not above the law, and I have ordered the immediate end of this unlawful conduct. This is a flagrant violation of both state and federal laws, and we are going to do everything in our power to protect mothers and unborn babies.”
Attorney General Paxton ordered Plan C, Her Safe Harbor, and an affiliate of Aid Access to immediately cease promoting, selling, or facilitating the shipment of abortion drugs to Texas residents. Failure to comply could result in further legal action, lawsuits seeking injunctive relief, and civil penalties of no less than $100,000 per violation under Texas law. This reaffirms Attorney General Paxton’s commitment to protecting innocent life and ensuring that out-of-state activists cannot evade Texas law to aid in the murder of the unborn.
One of the lawsuit’s arguments in the brief filed by Republican attorneys generals that FDA decisions allowing telemedicine prescribing and mailing of abortion pills paved the way for shield laws that have “enabled a 50-state mail-order abortion drug economy.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
