BREAKING: Texas Targets California Abortion Provider

The wrongful death suit also asks the court to stop a woman from having another abortion

A Texas man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a California abortion provider, claiming the doctor shipped abortion pills to his girlfriend across state lines. In a suit brought on behalf of “all current and future fathers of unborn children in the United States,” plaintiff Jerry Rodriguez also wants the court to prevent his girlfriend— who is currently pregnant—from having another abortion.

It’s a mess, so let’s dig in.

The suit was filed this weekend in the Southern District of Texas. Rodriguez is seeking $75,000 in damages from family medicine physician Remy Coeytaux, claiming the doctor is “guilty of felony murder” and that “assisting a self-managed abortion in Texas is an act of murder.”

Rodriguez alleges¹ that his girlfriend (who Abortion, Every Day won’t be naming) has had two abortions—the first of which he says was facilitated by Coeytaux, who allegedly mailed abortion pills into Texas. The suit also claims the woman, who is married but separated, was pressured by her estranged husband to end her pregnancies. Now, according to the complaint, she’s pregnant again—and Rodriguez is afraid she’ll “obtain abortion pills from Coeytaux to commit the murder.”

Here’s where everything starts to make sense: The lead lawyer on the case is none other than Jonathan Mitchell—the architect of Texas’ bounty hunter law and one of the country’s most aggressive anti-abortion legal activists. So it’s no wonder that the suit brings together two of Mitchell’s passions: the Comstock Act, and helping men harass women over abortion.

After all, this isn’t Mitchell’s first rodeo. He’s represented at least three other men who’ve sued over women’s abortions—including Marcus Silva, who sued his ex-wife’s friends for helping her get abortion pills. That case was eventually dropped, but not before it came out that Silva tried to use the lawsuit to blackmail his ex into having sex with him.

Since then, Mitchell and other anti-abortion activists have been cozying up to men’s rights groups, “abortion recovery” ministries, and crisis pregnancy centers—on the lookout for more angry men eager to sue their partners or exes for ending a pregnancy.

When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil suit against a New York abortion provider late last year, for example, that case was also based on a complaint from a man enraged that his girlfriend had an abortion without his permission. This isn’t some fringe tactic: A 2024 survey from the National Domestic Violence Hotline found that hundreds of abuse survivors said their partners threatened to sue them or call the cops if they had an abortion.

In other words, these bans are emboldening the worst kinds of controlling assholes. That’s why one of my 2025 predictions was that we’d see more lawsuits from aggrieved men. Who else would weaponize their partner’s pregnancy other than an abuser?

Then there’s the Comstock Act, which Mitchell likes almost as much as he likes helping men harass women. The suit he filed on behalf of Rodriguez argues that Dr. Coeytaux violated the (dormant, unenforced) federal law by mailing abortion pills from California into Texas.

For those who need a refresher, we’ve got a Comstock explainer here. The short version: it’s a 19th-century anti-vice law that prohibits the mailing of ‘obscene’ material—including abortion medication or tools.

And with women still getting care in spite of state bans—one in four abortions are provided via telehealth—conservatives have been hot-to-trot on getting the Trump administration to revive and enforce the zombie law. They know that Comstock is their best bet to enact a backdoor national abortion ban.

Their only problem? Donald Trump knows that the move would be wildly unpopular—so the White House has held off on pulling the trigger. Still, Mitchell has been forcing the issue; in addition to this suit, the lawyer has been angling for a legal fight by passing local anti-abortion ordinances in pro-choice states. His hope is to argue Comstock all the way up to the Supreme Court.

That brings us back to the current suit: This filing doesn’t just seek to punish a single abortion provider; it’s an attempt to establish that any provider shipping abortion medication is violating federal law. And while Mitchell doesn’t ask for an injunction against Rodriguez’s girlfriend directly, the suit does request the court block Coeytaux from sending her more pills.

Mitchell says they will add the manufacturers and distributors of the abortion pills as defendants once they’re identified.

Abortion, Every Day will have more on the suit in the coming days, but please remember that this is just the beginning—so we have to dig in and prepare. New York abortion provider Dr. Maggie Carpenter has already been targeted by Texas, and was indicted on criminal charges in Louisiana. (Republicans want to extradite her, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul all but told them to go fuck themselves.) And while pro-choice states are doing what they can to protect providers with shield laws, it’s clear that conservatives are itching for a fight they can bring to SCOTUS.

That means in the meantime, we have to protect each other. Farah Diaz-Tello, senior legal counsel at If/When/How, tells Abortion, Every Day that these cases “are ridiculous attempts to scare and intimidate people out of helping others access abortion.” That’s exactly right—and exactly why we can’t stop helping each other.

For information on how to obtain abortion medication, no matter where you live, check out our Resources page or go to YouAlwaysHaveOptions.com. For legal help, contact Pregnancy Justice or call If/When/How’s free Repro Helpline: 844-868-2812.

1. All of this information is coming from an anti-abortion suit, so take their claims with a grain of salt.