Hochul rejects Louisiana extradition request for doctor in abortion pill case

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has rejected Louisiana’s request to extradite a doctor from her state accused of prescribing and mailing abortion drugs to a woman. A Louisiana grand jury indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter last month.
• Louisiana prosecutors said a teen’s mother got the medication from Dr. Carpenter and the mom forced her to take the pill.
• A judge in Texas Thursday fined the same doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected a request Thursday, Feb. 13 to extradite a doctor who was charged with illegally giving abortion pills to a patient in Louisiana. It’s a crime in the Bayou State to knowingly cause an abortion through medication. 

“I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana, not now, not ever,” Hochul said.

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Hochul’s statement came after her office got the extradition request for New York doctor Margaret Carpenter. Hochul added that Louisiana’s laws have no bearing on the laws in New York, including its so-called shield law, which gives legal protections to doctors who prescribe abortion medication to states where abortions are banned or otherwise limited.

What led to Hochul’s statement?

A Louisiana grand jury indicted Carpenter in January 2025 for allegedly prescribing and providing mifepristone to a minor in Louisiana.

According to prosecutors, a mother in the state ordered the pill, which terminates a pregnancy of less than 70 days, from Carpenter for her daughter, who is a minor.

The Louisiana district attorney and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the teen’s mother forced her to take the medication.

“There’s only one right answer in this situation, and it is that this doctor must face extradition to Louisiana, where she can stand trial and justice will be served,” Landry said in a video statement Thursday. “We owe that to the minor and to the innocent loss of life and to the people of this stand who stand by life overwhelmingly.”

Landry also criticized Hochul following her announcement.

“So you’re telling me @GovKathyHocul is protecting criminals over victims?! And they wonder why people and businesses are fleeing the state,” Landry posted to X.

So you’re telling me @GovKathyHochul is protecting criminals over victims?!

And they wonder why people and businesses are fleeing the state🤔 https://t.co/F4gLW1XanM

— Governor Jeff Landry (@LAGovJeffLandry) February 14, 2025

Carpenter and her company, Nightingale Medical, along with the child’s mother, are charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, which is a felony in Louisiana.

The mother was arrested and booked into jail, but she has since bonded out.

The case is the first known criminal indictment of a doctor being charged with sending abortion pills across state lines after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

What other situation did Dr. Carpenter get fined?

Separately, a judge in Texas Thursday fined Carpenter for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas.

Texas didn’t file charges against Carpenter, but accused her in a lawsuit last year of violating state law by prescribing the medication through a telemedicine method.

Carpenter has been ordered to pay more than $100,000 in penalties in Texas and is now banned from prescribing medication to Texas residents.