New NY law lets doctors keep their names off abortion meds

By Jon Campbell and Samantha Max
Published Feb 3, 2025

A bill Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Monday aims to make it harder for authorities in other states to prosecute New York doctors who prescribe abortion medication online. ... The new law allows doctors to keep their names off of prescription labels for mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs commonly used to terminate early pregnancies. Instead, they’ll be allowed to list their practices or — once lawmakers approve an agreed-upon tweak in the coming days — the addresses of the practices instead, according to Hochul’s approval message.

Hochul approved the legislation three days after a Louisiana grand jury hit Dr. Margaret Carpenter, a doctor from the Hudson Valley town of New Paltz, with a criminal abortion charge alleging she prescribed abortion medication to a resident of the state. Abortions are banned in Louisiana, with limited exceptions.

“You know how they found this doctor? The doctor's name was on the prescription bottle,” Hochul said at a bill-signing event at the state Capitol. “That's what they were looking for to identify this individual. After today, that will no longer happen.”

But some of the bill’s supporters question whether it would do much to shield doctors who work for small practices with single addresses, such as Carpenter.

{snip}

New law aims to stop red states from prosecuting NY abortion doctors

After a New York doctor was indicted in Louisiana, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will keep doctors’ names off of prescriptions for abortion medicine.

By Austin C. Jefferson
February 3, 2025 02:18 PM ET

On the heels of a Louisiana grand jury indictment against a New York telehealth provider, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Monday that would anonymize the names of doctors providing abortion medication, listing the name of the medical practice rather than the physician, and announced an agreement with the state Legislature to amend the legislation in a way that would commit pharmacies to follow the bill’s guidance.

On Friday, Margaret Carpenter, a New Paltz doctor operating under New York’s existing abortion shield laws, was indicted by a Louisiana state grand jury after allegedly sending a Louisiana woman a prescription for pills that would induce an abortion. Prosecutors alleged that the woman who received the prescription was coerced by her mother into terminating the pregnancy and charged Carpenter with violating the southern state’s near-total abortion ban.

At the bill signing ceremony on Monday, Hochul said that she would not allow Carpenter to be extradited to Louisiana to face trial. “I basically said there's no way in hell I'll ever respond to requests to extradite this individual and face criminal charges,” Hochul said. “Never, under any circumstances, will I sign an extradition agreement that sends our doctors into harm's way to be prosecuted as a criminal for simply following their oath.” ... The governor suggested that the bill she signed on Monday could have prevented the authorities in Louisiana from identifying and indicting Carpenter. “You know how they found this doctor? The doctor’s name was on the prescription bottle. That’s what they were looking for to identify this individual,” Hochul said.

The bill that Hochul signed was originally introduced by state Sen. Shelley Mayer and Assembly Member Karines Reyes in October. It creates a narrow exception to the general state law that requires that medical prescriptions include the name of the prescribing doctor. “At the prescriber’s request, the prescription label for mifepristone, misoprostol and their generic alternatives may include the name of the prescribing health care practice instead of the name of the prescriber,” the bill reads.

{snip}