When it comes to the wars over abortifacients, the Southern states are striking back.
On Wednesday, three southern states filed lawsuits to undo New York’s legal protections for doctors who send abortion pills to patients out-of-state, including to states with restrictions on abortions. Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas want the U.S. Supreme Court to do away with shield laws of New York, California, and Massachusetts, and asked lower federal courts to prevent cross-country drug deliveries, according to a story by News Nation.
The lawsuits contend that shield laws enable an “illegal enterprise” while triggering about 2,000 medication abortions every month across Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama.
But New York State Attorney General Letitia James countered by saying that the Southern states “are asking the Supreme Court to let them impose their abortion bans on New York and punish our doctors for providing legal health care.”
In the SCOTUS lawsuit, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama sued New York, California, and Massachusetts directly. The plaintiffs asked the justices to declare shield laws unconstitutional and to block them from being enforced because they violate the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
That constitutional requirement says states have to respect one another’s laws. The plaintiffs also referred to the Dormant Commerce Clause and the equal-sovereignty doctrine, arguing that New York is inappropriately dictating national policy.
The SCOTUS complaint described a Louisiana teenager with severe complications stemming from abortion medication. When Louisiana authorities tried to extradite New York Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who prescribed the drugs, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul refused the extradition request. Then, she signed legislation letting doctors remove their names from pill bottles they prescribed, an attempt to hide their identities from other states.
The plaintiffs for the Southern states claimed New York intentionally shields lawbreakers who profit from illegal schemes. They called New York’s shield laws unconstitutional “economic protectionism,” claiming they purposely discriminate against other states.
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