Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York signed a bill on Monday intended to give the state’s health care providers an extra layer of protection to shield them from prosecution in states that ban abortion.
The newly signed law comes days after a New York doctor was indicted in Louisiana for prescribing and sending abortion pills to someone in the state. The charges represented an escalation in the fractious battle between mostly Republican-led states that ban abortion and Democratic-led states seeking to protect or expand abortion access.
The law, which takes effect immediately, will allow health-care practitioners to avoid putting their names on prescriptions for medications used in abortions, and instead use the names of their medical practices.
Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, said the goal was to better conceal the identity of providers in hopes of protecting them from criminal, civil or other legal action that anti-abortion states try to take against them.
“Other states want to target, harass, scare, intimidate doctors and patients. That may be OK in a place like Louisiana — maybe Indiana,” Ms. Hochul said at a news conference on Monday. “But those are not our values here in the state of New York.”
The legislation signed on Monday augments the state’s telemedicine abortion shield law, under which New York authorities are barred from cooperating with a prosecution or other action taken by another state against a New York abortion provider.
New York is one of eight states to have adopted such laws. Sending the pills across state lines has become a key way to provide abortion access to women in states with bans.
Since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022, a dozen states have enacted near-total abortion bans, and others have imposed strict limits on when during a pregnancy an abortion is allowed.
In the Louisiana case, Dr. Margaret Carpenter of New Paltz, N.Y., was charged last week, along with her medical practice, for “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs.”
Dr. Carpenter, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, was also sued in December by the attorney general of Texas and accused of providing abortion pills to a 20-year-old woman in that state.
Ms. Hochul said Monday that she would be looking for ways to further strengthen New York’s law, including ensuring that pharmacies follow the new labeling rules.
State Senator Michelle Hinchey, a New York Democrat who is a friend of Dr. Carpenter’s, said the doctor was “doing the hard work right now, standing up for the rights of people in other states that are losing their autonomy.”
Louisiana law enforcement officials filed charges against the mother of the teenager who took the abortion pills as well. The officials also said the teenager was coerced into taking the medication.
Ms. Hochul said she was not sure if that was true, and questioned if it was a “Republican distraction.”
“Doctors have been stopped, some receiving death threats, and in deeply conservative states they weaponized the courts against providers,” Ms. Hochul said. “And now we know they’ve tried to strip New York doctors of their medical licenses, sue them, throw them in jail and even charge them with murder.”
Pam Belluck and Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.
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