Galveston, Texas - A man in Galveston County is taking legal action against a California doctor he accuses of providing abortion pills to his partner, testing a Texas law that allows private citizens to sue for up to $100,000.
In the lawsuit, a man named Jerry Rodriguez accuses Dr. Remy Coeytaux of violating Texas' House Bill 7, which aims to bar pregnant people in the state from receiving abortion medication.
The legislation – which took effect on December 4 – permits private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails, or provides abortion medication to or from Texas.
Louisiana has also sought to arrest and extradite Coeytaux, who is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, over accusations of illegally mailing abortion pills.
The new Texas lawsuit alleges that Coeytaux illegally sent abortion medication to Rodriguez's partner after her estranged husband ordered the pills online. According to the complaint, she took the pills and terminated pregnancies in September 2024 and January 2025.
Rodriguez, who says he was the father in both instances, is seeking more than $75,000 in damages and a court order barring Coeytaux from prescribing or providing abortion pills to people in Texas.
"Full-scale attack on abortion pills"
The Center for Reproductive Rights has announced it will defend Coeytaux in court.
"Texas officials have already been going after doctors outside their borders, and now they’ve incentivized private citizens to do their bidding," Nancy Northup, the organization's president and CEO, said in a statement.
"This law is one of many meant to cut off access to abortion pills, which are a lifeline for women in post-Roe America. Abortion opponents have launched a full-scale attack on abortion pills – in the courts, in legislatures, and inside the FDA," Northup continued.
"People need to wake up to the fact that the anti-abortion movement is trying everything possible to have mifepristone taken off the market nationwide or become much harder to get."
The Center for Reproductive Rights is also defending midwife Maria Rojas after she was sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last March on charges of performing illegal abortions.