Attorney General Letitia James is intervening in a lawsuit to defend New York’s shield law regarding abortion rights. In a video message posted to X on Monday, Sept. 8, the attorney general said her office is intervening in a lawsuit to defend New York’s shield law and stop Texas from imposing what she described as a cruel abortion ban in New York.

 

Seeking, providing, and helping others obtain or provide abortion or gender-affirming health care is legal and protected in New York, but according to the Office of the New York Attorney General (OAG), increasingly, other states have criminalized this type of health care. In response, New York enacted several statutes known collectively as the “Shield Law,” intended to protect providers and patients offering or seeking such care in New York against efforts to impose criminal and civil liability originating from outside the state.

 

The Shield Law broadly prohibits law enforcement and other state officials from cooperating with investigations into reproductive or gender-affirming health care (“protected health care”) as long as the care was lawfully provided in New York.

 

“We’ve reached a new frontier in the fight for abortion rights,” James said on Monday. “Anti-abortion extremists are looking past their own state borders, targeting providers in states like New York, states that stand firm in defense of reproductive freedom.”

 

She continued, “Right now, the Texas Attorney General [Ken Paxton, a Republican] is trying to use New York courts to enforce Texas’s abortion bans. He’s suing because his office was blocked from filing papers to collect a $113,000 judgement against a New York doctor who provided telehealth abortion care that is fully legal here in New York. Today, my office is intervening in this lawsuit.”

James added, “We are stepping in to defend New York’s shield law. These extremists are coordinating a national campaign to chip away at reproductive freedom, freedom that New York proudly chose to protect in law. I will not stand for it. In a post-Roe world, states like New York are the last line of defense.”

 

In June, on the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping women of their constitutional right to make personal health care decisions, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “This verdict opened the door for states to restrict abortion access or ban it entirely, and since then, that is exactly what we’ve seen happen. Anti-choice judges and extremist politicians are routinely attacking abortion access, endangering the lives of millions of women while challenging the authority of licensed doctors to prescribe FDA-approved medications.”

 

She added, “In New York, we’re standing firm. As governor, I’m doing everything in my power to protect women, their healthcare providers and the fundamental right to choose. I will never stop fighting to ensure that abortion remains legal, safe, and accessible for all.”

 

Meanwhile, on Monday, James said for many patients across the country, New York providers are the only option for care. “That’s why today, we are drawing a line in the sand,” she said. “Do not come for our doctors. Do not come for our providers. We passed our shield law for exactly this reason and I am taking action to ensure that extremists in other states cannot control our laws, punish our residents, or drag our courts into enforcing their cruel bans.”

 

She said her office would use the full force of the law to protect patients and providers from “anti-abortion extremists” who would criminalize abortion and deny basic healthcare. “To every patient, every provider, every doctor, every person watching nervously this country, we see you,” she said. “New York sees you. We stand with you, and we are ready to fight.”

 

As reported, the attorney general previously sued the Trump Organization in a civil fraud case relating to an alleged overvaluation of its true asset value. James, herself, was in turn subsequently the subject of a federal investigation by the Trump administration over possible mortgage fraud.

 

Regarding the pending mortgage fraud lawsuit, the attorney general denies any wrongdoing and the case is ongoing. Meanwhile, NBC reported in December 2024 that U.S. President Donald Trump and his company had sought to avoid paying $486 million following a court ruling in his business fraud case. The president has previously and broadly sought to dismiss various legal cases brought against him, calling them “witch hunts.”

In August 2025, NPR reported that the an appeals court upheld the original judgement in the case but ruled the financial penalty imposed of around $486 million too harsh. Attorney General Letitia James, herself, was in turn subsequently investigated by the Trump administration over possible mortgage fraud. James denies any wrongdoing.

 

Reuters reported Monday that the president failed to overturn the E. Jean Carroll $83 million verdict in a prior defamation lawsuit from 2019 when he denied her rape claim.

 

Meanwhile, of the latest abortion law news, James concluded, “Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state extremists, and our state will always stand as a safe haven for freedom of choice.”

Paxton has served as Texas AG since Jan. 5, 2015.

 

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