New York doctor criminally indicted in Louisiana after sending abortion pills there

A state grand jury in Louisiana criminally indicted a New York doctor on Friday for allegedly sending abortion pills to a resident there.

Abortion has been banned in Louisiana since the summer of 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The doctor facing criminal charges was operating under New York’s telemedicine abortion shield law, which protects medical providers from this type of action.

Mary Ziegler, law professor at the University of California, Davis, speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about the basic elements of shield laws and the implications of these criminal charges in the abortion showdown between doctors and states.