(The Lion) In what could be a new front for the legal landscape surrounding abortion, a Texas man is suing a California doctor for allegedly providing abortion drugs across state borders to his pregnant girlfriend.
The first-of-its-kind lawsuit was filed in a federal district court in Texas, pitting the state’s protections for unborn babies against blue-state shield laws that aim to protect abortion providers from out-of-state investigations and legal action.
The legal complaint alleges California Dr. Remy Coeytaux “mailed abortion-inducing drugs into Texas that were used to murder Jerry Rodriguez’s unborn child.”
Rodriguez is seeking damages for “wrongful death” and an injunction to stop Coeytaux from distributing abortion drugs on “behalf of a class of all current and future fathers of unborn children in the United States.”
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Abortion via pills – most often in the U.S. through using both mifepristone and misoprostol – now accounts for the majority of abortions, and its use has been increasing each year. Abortion drugs accounted for 63% of abortions in 2023, compared to only 6% in 2001, according to data compiled by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
“Under the law of Texas, a person who assists a pregnant woman in obtaining a self-managed abortion commits the crime of murder and can be sued for wrongful Death,” the Texas lawsuit notes.
“It is also a state jail felony for anyone other than a Texas-licensed physician to provide an abortion-inducing drug for the purpose of inducing an abortion.”
Rodriguez alleges his girlfriend, Kendal Garza, aborted two of his unborn children under pressure from her estranged husband, Adam Garza, whose Venmo history – cited in the lawsuit – shows payments for abortion drugs allegedly purchased from Coeytaux.
Now that Garza is pregnant for a third time, Rodriguez says he is pre-emptively trying to stop another abortion by drugs.
“In May of 2025, Kendal became pregnant for a third time with Mr. Rodriguez’s child. She is now two months pregnant,” the lawsuit notes. “Mr. Rodriguez fears that Adam Garza will again pressure Kendal to kill his unborn child and obtain abortion pills from Coeytaux to commit the murder.”
Tweet This: A first-of-its-kind lawsuit pits a life state’s pro-life laws against abortion state shield laws aiming to protect abortion providers.
Coeytaux has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court, the docket indicates.
Former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell, credited with helping craft the state’s abortion restrictions, represents Rodriguez in court. The case comes as Texas has been considering measures to crack down on abortion pills flowing through the state, as the Texas Tribune reported.
The lawsuit is “one of a many-pronged strategy to test these shield laws in as many ways as possible,” Rachel Rebouché, the dean of the Temple Law School, told the Tribune. “This lawsuit reads like a playbook of the anti-abortion movement’s various strategies to try to shut down mailed medication.”
Editor's note: This article was published by The Lion and is reprinted with permission.
