Texas and Louisiana cases against a New York doctor over abortion pills sets up a showdown over shield laws designed to protect abortion providers.

Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke out after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an extradition warrant for a New York doctor indicted by a Louisiana grand jury for allegedly prescribing abortion pills online.

Louisiana is seeking to prosecute the doctor, who allegedly provided abortion medication to a minor there. The case is a key test for blue state “shield laws.”

New York enacted its telehealth abortion shield law in 2023, one year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The law bans local law enforcement from sharing information with other states and prohibits the governor from agreeing to hand over doctors who are accused of breaking other states’ abortion laws.

The ruling is the opening salvo in a likely lengthy battle between Texas’ abortion bans and New York’s “shield” protections for providers.

Society / New York’s shield law was designed to protect providers mailing medication abortion pills out of state. But a New York provider is facing legal action in Louisiana and Texas. Rachel Rebouché Can a doctor who lives in and practices medicine in the state of New York be fined by a Texas court for violating Texas’s abortion ban and licensure law,

By Rebekah Sager for the Michigan Independent. Broadcast version by Chrystal Blair for Michigan News Connection reporting for the Michigan Independent-Public News Service Collaboration The AP reported on Jan.