Abortion providers in Michigan could be sued without shield law protections

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Dec. 12, 2024, against Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, a family physician in New Paltz, New York. Paxton’s suit claims that Carpenter violated Texas law by providing abortion medication to a patient in Texas, where abortion is currently banned. The suit is seeking $250,000 and a temporary injunction barring Carpenter from prescribing abortion medications to patients in Texas and practicing medicine in the state.

Paxton’s complaint is a challenge to state “shield laws,” legislation that protects out-of-state providers from prosecution and investigation when providing telehealth abortion care in states where abortion is illegal. The Michigan Independent reached out to Paxton’s office but did not receive a response.

New York’s shield law protects physicians by prohibiting state agencies from cooperating with out-of-state investigations and ordering the governor to deny requests for extradition to another state for prosecution related to providing reproductive health care or gender-affirming care.

Only 18 states and the District of Columbia have shield laws in place to protect providers and patients. In some states, including Michigan, providers are only protected by an executive order from the governor that can be revoked, suspended, or expire.

In July 2022, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order protecting health care providers who provide abortion medication from prosecution. Whitmer’s second and final term ends in 2027, and if a Republican wins the state’s governorship in 2026, they could cancel the order.

Several bills that would have protected data privacy and implemented shield laws passed in the Michigan Senate last year but failed to pass in the state House. Those bills would have prohibited companies from collecting personal reproductive data and tracking information about patients seeking abortion care.

Abortion remains legal under Michigan’s Constitution.

Governors in Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have also issued executive orders prohibiting their states from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into and extradition of physicians who provide out-of-state reproductive health care services.

According to a report by #WeCount, a project of the nonprofit Society of Family Planning, shield laws have enabled thousands of medication abortions each month in states where abortion is banned.

“It has been clear from the beginning that this lawsuit is merely the latest in a broader strategy by anti-abortion politicians: to deliberately create fear and confusion among patients and health care providers to scare people into continuing their pregnancies against their will,” Paula Thornton Greear, the president, and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Michigan, said in an email.

If Paxton’s suit against the New York doctor is successful, even doctors protected by shield laws could become too afraid to provide care to patients out of state. 

“Whether the legal action succeeds or fails, it is calculated to have a chilling effect on patients, who fear prosecution for being forced to travel out of state for abortion care or fear being denied essential medical care in emergency situations,” Thornton Greear said. “People will die. Many already have.”