Texas man sues California doctor for allegedly sending abortion pills to state

A physician based in California has become the first medical provider sued under a recently enacted Texas statute that empowers private individuals to file civil lawsuits against providers who mail abortion medication into the state.The case was brought by Jerry Rodriguez, who claims that Remy Coeytaux, a doctor practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area, violated a Texas law that allows abortion providers to face penalties of at least $100,000 if they mail pills into Texas. The filing alleges Coeytaux mailed abortion medication to end Rodriguez’s girlfriend’s pregnancies twice, once in 2024 and again in early 2025.According to the complaint, Rodriguez was in a relationship with a woman who became pregnant. The filing states that the woman’s estranged husband ordered abortion pills from Coeytaux, which she then used to end the pregnancy. Rodriguez is suing for wrongful death and is seeking $100,000 in damages.The legal action follows a separate move by Louisiana, another state led by Republicans, which sought Coeytaux’s extradition last month. Louisiana authorities accused him of unlawfully sending abortion pills into the state. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said he would refuse the extradition.Texas and Louisiana enforce some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion policies. California is one of several blue states that passed “shield laws”, which aim to guard abortion providers from out-of-state extradition and prosecution, after Roe w Wade was overturned in 2022. Shield laws have infuriated abortion opponents, who say they are illegal.Rodriguez’s first filed suit in July, but on Sunday he updated the lawsuit to cite House Bill 7, which came into effect in December, as a way to compel Coeytaux to pay damages. He is represented by lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, one of the architects of the Texas abortion ban.Rodriguez is also asking for the doctor to be prohibited from prescribing or providing abortion-inducing drugs in Texas.House Bill 7 authorizes private citizens to sue anyone who “manufactures, distributes, mails, transports, delivers, prescribes, or provides” abortion pills to people in Texas.Under the statute, individuals may seek damages for abortion pills distributed after the law’s effective date and may also pursue injunctions against those who plan to continue supplying such medication in the state.The Texas measure, formally titled the Woman and Child Protection Act, was immediately met with opposition from Democratic legislators and abortion-rights advocates. Critics argue the law is designed to sidestep other states’ abortion protections by targeting providers who operate outside Texas.The updated lawsuit is another example of the intensifying conflict between red and blue states over abortion rights in the aftermath of Roe v Wade. Since the supreme court overturned the decision, demand for abortion pills has expanded significantly, particularly among women in Republican-led states where in-person abortion services have effectively vanished.The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Coeytaux, denounced the lawsuit in a statement, calling it a calculated effort to enforce laws that restrict women’s autonomy over their reproductive decisions.“This law goes against everything Texans value. It’s anti-freedom, anti-privacy and anti-family,” said Marc Hearron, associate litigation director at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “But these lawmakers are relentless in their attempts to scare doctors and patients from prescribing and accessing abortion pills – exactly because they are so safe, effective and widely used across the United States.”