New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday said she will intervene in a legal fight over Texas’ ban on abortion pills, escalating a national showdown between states that have restricted abortion access and others that are defending practitioners who offer services to out-of-state women.
Her decision came over a month after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York county clerk for refusing to file a six-figure judgment against a doctor accused of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas woman. This continues a legal battle over shield laws that experts say will likely reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I am stepping in to defend the integrity of our laws and our courts against this blatant overreach,” James said in a news release. “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here.”
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James said she will submit a legal filing later this month to argue that New York has the legal right to safeguard its residents and courts against “out-of-state overreach.” She said Monday that she has formally notified the case’s judge of that decision.
“Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state extremists, and New York will always stand strong as a safe haven for health care and freedom of choice,” she said in the news release.
Besides this legal fight with New York, Paxton has joined over a dozen other attorneys general from Republican-led states in July in calling on Congress to take action against abortion shield laws. They similarly argued that such laws infringe on the Constitution’s full faith and credit clause and the extradition clause.
The Texas Legislature also just advanced a bill allowing private residents to sue anyone who manufactures or distributes abortion drugs to or from the state.
See here for the previous update. I fully expect this to go to SCOTUS, and I do not have a lot of optimism about the outcome there. The wingnuts will find a way, if they decide it is their preference to find a way.
I also fully expect that this can, should, and will be reversed by Congress in the future, when the opportunity is there. It’s a matter of how long it takes to get that opportunity. What happens in next year’s election will be a big factor in that. You know what is needed. The 19th has more.