Texas sues Delaware nurse practitioner over mailed abortion pills

The attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Jefferson County accusing Debra Lynch, a Delaware nurse practitioner who operates the telehealth service Her Safe Harbor, of prescribing and shipping abortion pills to residents of Texas in violation of that state’s abortion ban.

Mr. Paxton said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, “The day of reckoning for this radical out-of-state abortion drug trafficker is here,” the suit says. The complaint cites a New York Times article, reporting from a Texas newspaper and the Her Safe Harbor website, which indicates the service offers abortion pills prescribed via telemedicine and will help patients in all 50 states.

The lawsuit says Mr. Paxton’s office sent cease-and-desist notices in August to Ms. Lynch’s service and other abortion pill providers, that it received no response, and that Ms. Lynch was quoted in Medscape saying, “We don’t fear fines or jail time at all,” the filing says. Ms. Lynch told The Times she would continue to supply pills to women who need them and said lawyers had advised her Delaware’s shield law protects her work.

The article notes Delaware’s shield law was strengthened last summer to clarify that it “provides protection from civil and criminal actions that arise in another state that are based on the provision of health care services that are legal in Delaware.” Ms.

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