After twice being rebuffed by Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has continued his effort to enforce a Texas district court’s summary judgment in New York. He has since named Bruck as a defendant in a lawsuit.
At the center of the case is a $113,219 civil penalty imposed on New Paltz physician Dr. Margaret Daly Carpenter, who was found guilty by a Texas court of prescribing the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone via telehealth to a patient in Texas.
Court rulings from one state can be enforced in another by filing with the county clerk’s office in that state.
After his initial attempt to file legal paperwork was rejected, Paxton resubmitted the same documents and gave Bruck a July 16 deadline to reverse the decision. Paxton has no jurisdiction in New York State.
Responding to Paxton’s second attempt, Bruck was pithy.
“Resubmitting the same materials does not alter the outcome. While I’m not entirely sure how things work in Texas, here in New York, a rejection means the matter is closed,” he wrote.
Bruck has argued that his actions rejecting the Texas paperwork were carried out in deference to a New York State law which protects residents who seek, provide or help others obtain or provide abortions from out-of-state criminal and civil liabilities.
Since June 2023, New York’s protections have applied to providers who are physically present in the state, even when they deliver abortion care via telehealth to patients in states where the procedure is banned.
“As Acting Ulster County Clerk, I take my responsibilities and the oath I swore with the utmost seriousness,” Bruck wrote in response to the lawsuit. “Today, I was sued in my official capacity for upholding New York State’s Shield Law, which protects providers of reproductive health care.”
In a press release, Paxton referred to Dr. Carpenter as a “radical abortionist” and alleged the drug “resulted in the killing of an unborn child and serious medical complications for the mother.”
Bruck’s action rejecting the summary judgment was a first-of-its-kind action in the state. If, as is expected, New York’s courts rule against Paxton’s lawsuit, he is expected to escalate the matter all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
Abortion had been legal across the United States since the Roe vs Wade ruling in 1973 until the Dobbs vs Jackson Supreme court ruling in 2022 overturned 50 years of precedent. The prerogative to regulate or ban abortion has since been returned to the states.
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