A New York doctor’s alleged decision to send abortion pills to patients in Texas and Louisiana has pitted the Empire State’s shield law against the two conservative states’ abortion bans, which are among the strictest in the country.

Margaret Carpenter, based in New Paltz, New York, has been indicted for prescribing abortion pills to a person in Louisiana — where nearly all abortions are illegal, even in cases of rape or incest. It isn’t the only legal threat she faces: In December,