AG James Fights Texas Attempt To Make State Enforce Sanctions On NY Abortion Providers

NEW YORK — New York's highest law enforcement official is locked in a legal battle with her counterpart in Texas over an attempt to require New York courts to enforce the Lone Star State's abortion restrictions on providers here.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Monday that she is intervening to block the Texas attorney general's attempts to use New York courts to enforce those Texas abortion bans.

"I am stepping in to defend the integrity of our laws and our courts against this blatant overreach," James said. "Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here. 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. I will fight every last attempt to roll back our rights and turn back the clock on reproductive freedom."

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a New York county clerk after his office was blocked from filing papers to collect a $113,000 judgment against the New York doctor who provided telehealth abortion care for a Texas patient.

The Texas AG has said the enfacement effort is no different that targeting out-of-state drug dealers who send contraband into his state.

"Texas will not tolerate the murdering of innocent life through illegal drug trafficking," Paxton said. "These abortion drug organizations and radical activists are not above the law, and I have ordered the immediate end of this unlawful conduct. This is a flagrant violation of both state and federal laws, and we are going to do everything in our power to protect mothers and unborn babies."

James said the lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of New York's shield law, which protects providers and patients by preventing state and local officials from helping out-of-state prosecutions for abortion or gender-affirming care. James has now formally intervened in the lawsuit to defend the shield law.

Passed in 2023 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, New York's shield law was conceived to protect reproductive and gender-affirming care providers who offer health care that is legal in New York. The law prohibits public officials from enforcing out-of-state subpoenas, judgments, arrests, or extraditions in cases targeting providers, and extends these protections to reproductive health care providers offering telehealth care in New York.

In December 2024, the Texas attorney general sued a New York doctor in Texas court for providing abortion telehealth care from her clinic in Ulster County. After a Texas judge issued a $113,000 judgment against the doctor, the attorney general attempted to bring his case to New York courts, asking the Ulster County Supreme Court to enforce the judgment and help collect the money awarded in Texas.

The county clerk rejected the filing under New York's shield law, which bars courts and officials from using state resources to enforce out-of-state punishments against protected health care providers. In response, the Texas attorney general sued the clerk and challenged New York's shield law, claiming the law violates the Constitution's Full Faith and Credit Clause.

Now, James said she is stepping in to defend the shield law. On Monday, she formally notified Ulster County Supreme Court Judge David Gandin that she is intervening in Texas's lawsuit, invoking her authority to defend New York laws that are challenged in court.

James said she will argue that Texas cannot commandeer New York's courts to enforce its punitive abortion laws, and that New York has the legal right and responsibility to safeguard its residents, its providers, and its courts from out-of-state overreach.

"At a time when reproductive freedom is under unprecedented attack, our state and its leaders must do everything in their power to protect those seeking abortion care and the providers delivering it," Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts President Robin Chappelle Golston said of today's move by James. "We are incredibly fortunate to have an attorney general who embodies this commitment and is a tenacious defender of our freedoms."