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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has approved legislation that allows physicians prescribing abortion medication to request that their names are left off the packaging for abortion pills, days after a New York doctor was indicted for providing abortion pills to a girl in Louisiana.
"Other states, they want to target, harass, scare, intimidate doctors and patients," Hochul said Monday as she signed the bill into law. "Those are not our values here in the State of New York." The law, which takes effect immediately, allows prescribers to request that their practice's name be printed on abortion medication labels, rather than their own.
The move strengthens the state's 2023 telehealth "shield law," which protects doctors who prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is illegal or severely restricted.
One in three U.S. women between the ages of 15 and 44 live in states where abortion is banned or mostly banned, according to The Washington Post's database of abortion policies by state; Louisiana has a near-total ban on abortions.
On Friday, a grand jury in West Baton Rouge parish charged New York doctor Margaret Carpenter, 55, for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a girl under the age of 18 in April, in what appears to be the first time an abortion provider has been prosecuted since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. The child's mother and Carpenter's company, Nightingale Medical, were also indicted.
"I have said it before and I will say it again: We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law," Louisiana's Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote Friday on X.
The prosecutor in the Louisiana case has acknowledged that he will not be able to prosecute Carpenter - if New York does not agree to her extradition - something Hochul said Monday she would "never, under any circumstances," agree to. However, experts have previously told The Post the prosecution is also an attempt to intimidate other doctors.
Carpenter would face one to five years in prison and a $5,000 to $50,000 fine, if convicted.
Hochul said Louisiana prosecutors had found Carpenter because her "name was on the prescription bottle. That's what they were looking for to identify this individual."
The new law amends existing legislation to permit prescription labels "for mifepristone, misoprostol, and their generic alternatives" to have "the name of the prescribing health care practice instead of the name of the prescriber."
At present, pharmacies in New York are not legally obliged to adhere to physicians' requests for their name not to appear on abortion drug labels, but Hochul said there are plans for new laws to change this.
Following the overturn of Roe, and more recently with President Donald Trump's reelection in November, there has been a renewed focus on the issue of abortion, with reproductive-health organizations and companies reporting that more women were seeking abortion pills, and New Jersey announcing plans to stockpile mifepristone, a key abortion drug. More Americans have also sought sterilizations in light of growing restrictions on abortion in many states, The Post reported last month.
Within days of returning to office, Trump reinstated a policy blocking U.S. aid to foreign organizations that perform or discuss abortion, and overturned two Biden executive orders that he argued were in violation of a law barring federal funding for abortion. He also pardoned 23 people convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics.
Trump has repeatedly shifted his position on abortion. In recent years, he has criticized the unpopularity of statewide abortion bans - including describing Florida's six-week abortion ban as "a terrible mistake" - while also claiming responsibility for the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe and arguing that states should decide on abortion rights.
In August, he suggested he was open to revoking access to mifepristone, which is part of a two-drug regimen used in more than 60 percent of U.S. abortions. He has since said that he does not plan to restrict abortion pills, but he added that "things do change."
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld broad access to mifepristone last June, two years after overturning Roe. Ahead of that decision, Walgreens and CVS announced they would begin selling the pill in states where it is legally allowed.
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