Attorney General Liz Murrill believes she would win a lawsuit against New York and California in her fight to extradite doctors who have been indicted for mailing abortion pills to individuals in Louisiana. The dispensing of abortion pills is illegal in Louisiana when prescribed outside of a hospital setting. Murrill says according to the Full Faith and Credit Clause in the U.S. Constitution, states must honor each other’s laws.
“So we are trying to effectuate the will of our legislature and the criminal statutes of our state and enforce those laws against people who, knowingly and intentionally, violated those laws in our state,” Murrill said.
Murrill has yet to file the lawsuits against these two states, as the state is trying to extradite the doctors accused of mailing abortion pills into Louisiana. California Governor Gavin Newsom says his state will never help Louisiana criminalize healthcare. Murrill says Newsom and New York Governor Kathy Hochul are playing politics.
“I could mail guns to their states, say ‘I don’t agree with your laws. I think I’m going to send all your people guns.’ They would absolutely want to prosecute me for the illegal violation of their gun laws,” Murrill said.
California and New York have ignored Louisiana’s extradition requests, because shield laws in their state protect abortion providers from out of state civil or criminal charges. But Murrill says this has nothing to do with reproductive rights, because in both cases, the women were forced to take abortion pills by either their mother or their boyfriend.
“This has nothing to do with reproductive healthcare, even in their conception of it, because they self-profess not to support coercion. And yet that’s exactly what they’re doing,” Murrill explained.