New York will not honor a request from Louisiana to extradite a doctor who prescribed abortion medication, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday.
Hochul, seated behind her desk in her Manhattan office, held up a copy of Louisiana’s order and said she’d refuse to comply.
“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana. Not now. Not ever,” Hochul said.
Hochul said the request runs counter to shield laws in New York meant to protect abortion providers from facing prosecution for treating patients in other states where the practice is no longer legal.
“After 49 years of having the established law of the nation overturned by this Supreme Court. We knew that in the state of New York that we had providers who could be vulnerable,” Hochul said.
Carpenter is also the target of a lawsuit in Texas. A judge in that case also signed an order barring Carpenter from sending abortion medication to Texas residents, The New York Times reported.
“Louisiana has changed their laws, but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York. Doctors take an oath to protect their patients,” the governor added. “I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers.”
In a video statement released earlier Thursday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced the extradition warrant for New Paltz-based Dr. Margaret Carpenter.
Landry reiterated the charges by Louisiana law enforcement, which accuse Carpenter of prescribing abortion medication to a minor, who took the pill and ended up in the hospital.
“There’s only one right answer in this situation and it’s that that doctor must face extradition to Louisiana where she can stand trial and justice will be served,” Landry said.
“We owe that to the minor and to the innocent loss of life and to the people of this state who stand by life overwhelmingly,” Landry added.
Landry’s office did not immediately respond to a request to comment on Hochul’s denial.
Hochul quickly moved to sign into law additional measures to strengthen New York’s expansive protections for abortion providers last week after the charges against Carpenter were announced.
They include a bill that would allow doctors providing abortion medications to place their practice’s name on the label rather than their own.
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