Texas Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson said Tuesday that he will not continue Ken Paxton's practice of suing doctors in other states who send abortion medication to patients in Texas. Democrats won Texas' statewide elected offices in the election, and Paxton left the attorney general's office to run for Senate.
Johnson told The Texas Tribune that he cannot change abortion law because he is not a legislator. He said he could stop using Texas abortion laws as a tool of persecution, intimidation, harassment and political showboating.
Texas law makes it illegal for doctors in the state to mail abortion medication. Paxton sued doctors in other states, and abortion advocates said those lawsuits discouraged Texans from obtaining the pills. Those cases have run into blue states' shield laws, which protect doctors who send abortion medication. Johnson said he will not pursue the claim that Texas law applies beyond its borders.