Governor Hochul is adamant she will never sign an extradition order for a New York doctor who prescribed abortion pills to a patient in Louisiana.

The showdown began in January when a Louisiana grand jury indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter in New York for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor. On Wednesday, the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, signed an extradition order for Ms. Carpenter.

However, Ms. Hocul says New York will not honor the extradition request. In a press conference Thursday, Ms. Hochul said New York lawmakers passed the Shield Law, which is meant to protect doctors who prescribe abortion pills to patients in states with bans.

“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,” Ms. Hochul said. “I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers, and I will uphold not only our constitution, but also the laws of our land. And I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the Governor of Louisiana: Not now, not ever. I want to be very clear on that.”

The case is the first time since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade that a doctor is facing criminal charges for sending abortion pills to another state. The Associated Press notes it “appears to be the first instance” of such charges in American history. 

Law enforcement alleges that the mother of the minor who took the abortion pills coerced her daughter into doing so. The Baton Rouge district attorney, Tony Clayton, said the mother told her daughter “she had to take the pill or else, and the child took the pill.”

“To ship a pill from another state is equivalent to me shipping fentanyl or any other type of drugs over here that end up in the mouths and stomachs of our minor kids,” Mr. Clayton said. 

Prosecutors also say the child was hospitalized after she suffered a medical emergency due to the pill. 

The identity of the child’s mother has not been released to protect the privacy of her daughter. 

While Ms. Hochul is insisting New York will not agree to extradite Ms. Carpenter, Louisiana officials say the doctor is charged with severe crimes and should be careful about her travel plans as other states might honor an extradition request. 

The attorney general of Louisiana, Liz Murrill, said, “New York officials, including the governor, are not at liberty to ignore interstate compacts and laws regarding extradition.”

“If New York won’t cooperate, there are other states that will,” she added.

There have been previous disputes among states about whether they are required to comply with extradition requests. Before the Civil War, there were conflicts around whether free states were required to return escaped slaves.

Article IV Section 2 of the Constitution states that anyone who “shall flee from Justice and be found in another state” shall be “delivered up” to the state that filed the extradition request. 

Because Ms. Carpenter was not in Louisiana when she prescribed the abortion pills, legal scholars are not so sure that New York is required to comply with Louisiana’s extradition request.

A law professor at the University of California, Mary Ziegler, told Law360, “I think what you’re going to see is New York saying, ‘Dr. Carpenter never was in Louisiana at the time the abortion took place, maybe never was at all, and therefore she’s not a fugitive within the meaning of the Extradition Clause.’”

New York’s law states that it would extradite a defendant if the “demanding” state alleges that the individual committed a crime and then “fled from that state,” which Louisiana officials have not alleged. 

The director of the Center for Life with the Alliance Defending Freedom, Erik Baptist, told Law360 that the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, which requires states to recognize other states’ judicial proceedings, is the governing principle in this case. 

“So if there is a criminal, not just indictment, but ultimately a conviction against Dr. Carpenter in Louisiana for her harmful actions to the teenage girl, then New York State should relinquish and provide Dr. Carpenter to the officials of the state of Louisiana,” Mr. Baptist said.

However, legal scholars believe that because Ms. Carpenter’s case involves criminal charges, it would likely not be able to move forward without her present. 

Ms. Carpenter is also facing a civil lawsuit from Texas for allegedly mailing abortion pills to that state. 

Either of those two cases could set up a legal challenge of New York’s Shield Law that could end up before the Supreme Court.