A New York county clerk on Thursday blocked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s effort to take legal action against a New York doctor for prescribing and sending abortion pills to a Texas patient. The escalating dispute between Texas and New York over the Empire state’s so-called shield law,

When the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, it allowed each state to pass its own laws

On Thursday, citing New York’s shield law, the acting clerk of Ulster County in Kingston, N.Y., Taylor Bruck, said he would not grant Texas’ motion seeking to enforce the Collin County order. He also refused to allow Texas to file a summons that sought to force Dr. Carpenter to pay the penalty and comply with the Texas ruling.