Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas attorneys general took blue-state abortion-pill shield laws to the Supreme Court, calling out-of-state mail-order shipments illegal drug dealing that state laws cannot stop.
Louisiana Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill, joined by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, filed twin lawsuits on Wednesday aimed at what they describe as a cross-border abortion-pill network. One case lands at the Supreme Court against New York, California, and Massachusetts. The other, a roughly 100-page complaint filed in Louisiana, names more than 30 people and organizations accused of advertising, prescribing, dispensing, or shipping abortion pills into states that restrict them.
Fox News Digital reported the attorneys general argue shield laws in the blue states block cooperation with investigations, extradition, and enforcement after the 2022 Dobbs ruling returned abortion policy to the states.
Murrill did not soften the charge.
"This is drug dealing and it's illegal," Murrill said. "And we're going to continue to do everything that we can to enforce the laws in our states."
Louisiana has already indicted New York physician Margaret Carpenter and California physician Remy Coeytaux over allegations they prescribed abortion drugs sent into Louisiana. Officials in those states refused to hand them over.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected extradition for Carpenter. The Supreme Court complaint cites Hochul declaring there was "no way in h***" she would comply with Louisiana’s request.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected Louisiana’s request for Coeytaux in January. After Murrill vowed further action, Newsom answered on X: "Go f--- yourself. California will never help you criminalize healthcare."
Hochul’s office framed the new litigation as an attack on patients and providers.
"No one should have to fear being punished for seeking or providing reproductive care," Hochul said. "As anti-abortion extremists in other states try to reach across our borders and threaten patients and providers, New York will stand up for them. Our shield laws are there to protect that freedom."
She added that New York will keep fighting to remain a "safe haven for reproductive rights."
The Supreme Court suit targets laws the three red-state attorneys general say stop their offices from finishing investigations into out-of-state abortion-pill providers. Murrill called the statutes "very comprehensive."
The filing notes New York later strengthened its shield law, including by allowing abortion-drug prescribers to keep their names off prescription labels. California and New York also prohibit officials from helping other states enforce judgments tied to abortion-related conduct, the attorneys general argue.
Murrill put the reciprocity point in plain terms.
"I think that if I sent guns into their states illegally, they would certainly try to come after me," she said. "I said specifically at the time that we would be coming for them and we are."
"We are going to take down those laws using every tool that we have at our disposal," she added.
The Louisiana complaint alleges providers used online questionnaires to collect customer information, then mailed abortion drugs into states where distribution is prohibited. Some organizations, the states claim, openly acknowledged that the conduct violated those state laws while relying on shield laws for cover.
Murrill said her office has watched the process up close through controlled purchases. Investigators received pills packaged in small bags. Quantities sometimes exceeded what would ordinarily be prescribed, she said.
"We've seen it for ourselves," Murrill said. "There's no supervision, there's no healthcare, there's no communication whatsoever. It's all done online."
She also described a case her office documented in one Louisiana town. A father who did not want his teenage daughter to continue a pregnancy put the medication in a smoothie and forced her to drink it, Murrill said. The girl later gave birth at 23 weeks. The baby remained in a NICU fighting for its life.
"We have a situation in one town in Louisiana that we've documented and investigated where a father did not want his teenage daughter to keep a pregnancy," Murrill said. "And so he basically put the medication in a smoothie, forced her to drink it. She did ultimately give birth to that baby at 23 weeks and is still in a NICU fighting for its life."
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser backed the litigation and said blue-state laws are being used to obstruct justice. She also urged the Justice Department to settle Louisiana’s separate challenge to federal rules that dropped the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.
"Democrats’ pro-abortion extremism has brought this country to a crisis point. Abortion activists flagrantly sell dangerous drugs across state lines and women and children pay the price, with more and more survivors of ‘death in a pill’ bravely coming forward," Dannenfelser said.
Murrill said the Food and Drug Administration could do more and that her office has already asked the agency to act. Louisiana has separately challenged the federal rules that eliminated in-person dispensing for the abortion drug.
Fox News Digital reached out to the governors’ offices in New York, California, and Massachusetts for comment on the Supreme Court filing. Hochul answered with the defense of shield laws noted above. Massachusetts did not yield a detailed public reply in the initial reporting.
Dobbs gave elected officials power to set abortion policy inside their own borders. Murrill’s two filings test whether blue-state shield laws can nullify that authority by walling off evidence, names, and extradition when pills cross state lines by mail.
State laws mean little if officials next door can block every attempt to enforce them, and call it compassion while the packages keep moving.
