Texas has sued a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a Dallas-area woman, launching the first known legal challenge of its kind, which will test what happens when two states’ abortion laws conflict.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit accuses Dr Margaret Daley Carpenter of New York of posting the medication to the 20-year-old woman.

It is alleged she took the pills when she was nine-weeks pregnant, violating Texas’s ban on nearly all abortions.

But Dr Carpenter may be protected by New York’s so-called shield laws, which aim to legally safeguard doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in other states. She could not be reached for comment.