FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Doctors for America
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March 7, 2025
Doctors for America Releases Updated Guide to Navigate Interstate Abortion Care as First Criminal Charges are Filed in Louisiana
The Know-Your-Rights guide explains the New York Telehealth Abortion Shield Law, which is facing its first interstate legal challenges from Texas and Louisiana.
Washington, D.C.: Today, Doctors for America (DFA) and the Columbia Law School’s Science, Health, and Information Clinic released an updated version of their know-your-rights guide to educate New York State (NYS) clinicians about the laws protecting the provision of medication abortions across state lines. The guide provides a deep-dive on the New York Telehealth Shield Law, which aims to protect clinicians located and licensed in NYS who provide abortions, regardless of the patient’s location.
The updated guide’s release comes just weeks after the first civil and criminal charges were brought against a NYS clinician for providing telehealth medication abortions to patients located in states hostile to abortion. On January 31, 2025, Louisiana became the first state to bring criminal charges against a physician for providing a telehealth medication abortion with the indictment of Dr. Margaret Carpenter, an abortion provider based in New Paltz, New York. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton first brought civil charges against Dr. Carpenter in December.
These cases present the first legal challenges to a state’s abortion shield law.
“Knowledge is power. When clinicians better understand their rights under the New York telehealth abortion shield law, they can be empowered to provide critical and often life-saving care to our patients,” said Subhjit Sekhon, MD, an OB/GYN and DFA advocate. “For now, the shield law is doing its job by protecting those clinicians who provide compassionate, necessary health care across state lines to patients who would otherwise be denied the dignity of abortion care.“
“Our know-your-rights guide exists to provide curious, brave clinicians with the legal information they need to make informed decisions about whether to provide telehealth medication abortion,” said Nora Franco, Columbia Law JD ’25, one of the coauthors of the guide. “With President Trump’s terrifying anti-abortion agenda in his second term, we need informed clinicians now more than ever.“
The NYS Telehealth Shield law was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul on June 23, 2023. It has been supplemented with further legislation in the years since. New York’s laws are meant to protect reproductive health clinicians and patients alike from legal prosecution and other adverse actions. Despite this legislation’s anticipated impact in securing abortion access, New York abortion clinicians may have been unaware of its existence. To rectify this issue and help inform physicians’ decisions on providing interstate telehealth abortion care, DFA and the Columbia Law School’s Science, Health, and Information Clinic researched, wrote, and, published the first Know-Your-Rights (KYR) Guide on the New York shield law in 2024.
The first edition of the KYR Guide provided clinicians with a summary and brief history of the legislation, a simple and comprehensible breakdown of each section of the law, and a “Question and Answer” section providing more in-depth explanations on particular matters of interest such as potential criminal prosecution or out-of-state travel safety concerns. The updated KYR Guide addresses the ongoing litigation against Dr. Carpenter and its potential impact on the law.
Abortion physicians are a significant factor in the equation of interstate and telehealth abortion care. Over four in ten (42%) obstetrician/gynecologists report concern about their own legal risks when making decisions about patient care and abortions. With this Know-Your-Rights Guide, DFA hopes to inform clinicians’ decisions relating to interstate and telehealth abortion care.
The guide was authored by Columbia Law School Science, Health & Information Clinic student attorneys Ryeaan Chaudhary, Xingni (Cindy) Chen, Nora M. Franco, Angela Kang, and Priscilla E. Kim. It was edited by Professor Christopher Morten of Columbia Law School, director of the clinic.
Media contacts: Nora Franco ([email protected]) and Christopher Morten ([email protected]) at the Columbia Law School Science, Health & Information Clinic and Kyle Shields ([email protected]) at DFA.
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About Doctors for America:
Doctors for America mobilizes doctors and medical students to be leaders in putting patients over politics to improve the health of our patients, communities, and nation. We are 27,000 physicians and medical students in all 50 states, representing all areas of specialization. Our impact areas focus on access to affordable care, community health and prevention, and health justice and equity. DFA focuses solely on what is best for our patients, not on the business side of medicine, and does not accept any funding from pharmaceutical or medical device companies; which uniquely positions DFA as the organization that puts patients over politics and patients over profits. Find out more at doctorsforamerica.org and on Twitter @drsforamerica.