Texas man sues California doctor for wrongful death for mailing abortion pills
A Texas lawsuit against a California doctor who prescribed abortion pills for a Texas woman is the latest instance of states with abortion bans targeting doctors in states that allow the procedure.
On Sunday, Jerry Rodriguez filed a lawsuit against Dr. Rémy Coeytaux, a physician based in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to The Associated Press. Rodriguez, who lives in Texas, accused Coeytaux of illegally mailing abortion pills.
A new Texas law allows private citizens to sue anyone who makes, distributes, mails or provides abortion medicine to or from the state, according to The Texas Tribune.
Texas is the second state to target Coeytaux for sending abortion pills over state lines. On Jan. 13, Louisiana asked California to extradite Coeytaux over criminal charges related to sending abortion pills to Louisiana. If convicted in Louisiana, he could face up to 50 years in prison.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom denied Louisiana’s request, citing an executive order he signed barring state agencies from assisting outside groups to prosecute abortion providers.
The recent actions are testing blue state shield laws, which protect doctors against prosecution for providing abortions out of state.
Could shield laws protect doctors?
Coeytaux’s case is not unique. A doctor in New York is facing the same pressure from Louisiana and Texas.
State prosecutors charged Dr. Maggie Carpenter with prescribing abortion pills for a minor in Louisiana. New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul declined to extradite Carpenter.
A month before Louisiana authorities issued their arrest warrant for Carpenter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued her for providing abortion medication to Texans.
New York’s shield laws protected her from any prosecution, civil or criminal. However, a court ruling could lower the shields protecting Carpenter and Coeytaux.
“Those [cases] raise really profound constitutional, structural questions about interstate relationships,” Rachel Rebouché, dean and professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, told Time. “They’re bound to end up before the Supreme Court because there’s a long, complicated history of mediating disputes between states when they don’t agree on public policy, and that’s where we are now.”
Others believe that conservative states are using legal challenges to threaten doctors in other states to comply with their state’s laws. The simultaneous criminal and civil cases show that states are coordinating to target the same person.
Lizzy Hinkley, a senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said shield laws are working and states have the right to enact them.
“I’m sure that there will be continued challenges to the shield laws,” Hinkley told Time. “I can say with certainty that [shield laws] were drafted with good care and with these legal challenges in mind, and they stand on solid ground, both within what states are allowed to do, as well as what they’re not allowed to do.”
The center has aided in crafting these laws in several states.
Why have abortions increased after SCOTUS repealed Roe?
Straight Arrow News previously reported that abortions have increased since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Nationwide, monthly abortion numbers have increased by roughly 10 to 20% since Roe was overturned, according to the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit association of health care professionals.
Researchers believe part of the increase is due to the expanded use of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a second generic version of those drugs in October.
The abortion pill now accounts for roughly 63% of all abortions, up from 53% in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national research and policy organization.
What comes next?
Legal experts said the Coeytaux case is unlikely to be resolved quickly. Erica Bayles Inzina, policy director of Louisiana Right to Life, told SAN that states would be in a deadlock until the cases go before the Supreme Court.
Others, like Drexel University law professor David S. Cohen, said the ruling is far from certain, but the case shows how abortion access in the U.S. has changed since the Supreme Court repealed Roe.
“The fact that abortion providers are mailing pills from shield states to states where abortion is banned is a hugely important part of the post-Dobbs landscape,” he told SAN
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
