Texas man sues California doctor over medication abortion

HOUSTON (CN) — A Texas man filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against a California doctor, claiming the doctor mailed abortion medication to his girlfriend.

In the lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Texas on Sunday, plaintiff Jerry Rodriguez seeks civil damages from a California doctor named Remy Coeytaux over what he says are violations of state and federal laws regarding the mailing of abortion medications.

In the years following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade , conservative opponents of abortion have focused much energy on abortion-inducing medication, both by lawsuit and by legislation.

Although the nation’s high court blocked an anti-abortion group’s legal challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s certification of the abortion drug mifepristone, the high-profile federal judge in Texas who oversaw that case allowed a parallel challenge from three state attorneys general to continue as of January. The Trump administration, however, asked the judge to dismiss the states’ lawsuit in May.

And in many Republican-led states, including Texas, legislators have introduced several bills trying to curtail access to and distribution of abortion medications.

Now, one of the architects of Texas’ widely protested bill from 2021 known as the “Texas Heartbeat Act” is serving as the lead attorney in this new wrongful death lawsuit.

Jonathan Mitchell, a key backer of the “Heartbeat Act” who previously served as solicitor general of Texas from 2010 to 2015, has stepped up as the lead counsel the proposed class action filed in the Southern District of Texas.

In the lawsuit, Rodriguez claims his girlfriend took abortion medications on two separate occasions. According to Rodriguez, his girlfriend’s estranged ex-husband purchased the drugs from Coeytaux, who sent them across state lines.

“Assisting a self-managed abortion in Texas is an act of murder,” Rodriguez says in the complaint.

In addition to the claimed violations of state law, Mitchell argues that Coeytaux violated a dormant federal law known as the Comstock Act, which bars sending obscene material through the mail.

The 1873 law specifically sought to block the mailing of pornography, contraceptives, and any abortion-inducing medicines or materials. Congress repealed the portion regarding contraceptive birth control in 1971, and the law has sat largely dormant since. But present-day opponents of abortion have pushed to use Comstock to block the distribution of abortion medication like mifepristone.

Rodriguez wants an injunction on behalf of a class of “all current and future fathers of unborn children in the United States.” He also seeks $75,000 in damages against Coeytaux.

Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An email to Coeytaux seeking comment was not answered by press time.