(NY) Ulster County clerk refuses to file Texas judgment in abortion case

[Jessica_Rose]

Ulster County clerk refuses to file Texas judgment in abortion case

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ulster-county-clerk-refuses-to-file-texas-judgment-in-abortion-case/ar-AA1BMlPL?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=663faaf4515741e9b6cf4854648caef2&ei=143

Story by Phillip Pantuso (27 March 2025)

KINGSTON — The Texas attorney general is attempting to force New York to honor a ruling issued in Texas against a Hudson Valley doctor who failed to respond to a civil lawsuit after allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a woman in that state. But the official charged with filing the ruling in New York, acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck, has refused to do so, citing a New York law that shields medical providers who offer telehealth abortion care to patients in states where those services are restricted.

The doctor at the center of the Texas case is Margaret Daley Carpenter... In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Carpenter, who is not licensed to practice in that state, alleging she had mailed abortion pills to a patient there.

Last month, a Texas judge ordered Carpenter to stop sending pills to patients in that state and to pay a fine of more than $113,000... But it is not enforceable in New York, where Carpenter is protected by the state's shield law.

But Bruck admitted it "wasn't a very hard decision."

"The (shield) law is very clear: It says that no government employee or agency shall comply with any out-of-state (abortion-related) proceeding, civil or criminal," he said. "We are government employees. This is a proceeding. It is civil. A judgment is part of a civil case. And so in my opinion, there's really no gray area."