Overview

• A coalition of 16 Republican attorneys general led by Texas AG Ken Paxton and Louisiana AG Liz Murrill sent a letter to congressional leaders this week calling for federal legislation to invalidate state shield laws.
• Shield laws passed in Democratic states such as New York bar officials from enforcing civil judgments and extradition requests against providers who mail abortion pills to residents of states with near-total bans.
• In their letter, the attorneys general argue these statutes conflict with constitutional requirements for full faith and credit and for extradition across state lines.
• Paxton and Murrill have targeted New York-based Dr. Margaret Carpenter in separate legal actions, securing a $100,000 civil penalty in Texas and winning a grand jury indictment in Louisiana over her telemedicine abortions.
• Congress now faces pressure to consider preemptive federal measures that would shift the interstate abortion dispute from state courts to Capitol Hill.