A Texas man is taking a new legal tack in the nation's ongoing fight over abortion pills. Jerry Rodriguez has filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against California physician Remy Coeytaux, alleging Coeytaux illegally mailed abortion medication to Rodriguez's girlfriend—despite California's "shield" law that protects providers sending such pills, even to states with bans like Texas, reports the Washington Post. The case, filed in Texas federal court, is believed to be the first of its kind: an interstate wrongful-death suit stemming from the mailing of abortion pills. "Assisting a self-managed abortion in Texas is an act of murder," Rodriguez says in his complaint, per Courthouse News Service.
Rodriguez, represented by conservative attorney Jonathan Mitchell—best known for crafting Texas' "heartbeat" law—seeks more than $75,000 and a court order stopping Coeytaux from mailing pills. Rodriguez also signaled plans to sue manufacturers and distributors if they're identified. Mitchell's suit invokes the federal Comstock Act, a 19th-century statute restricting the mailing of "obscene" materials, which he argues includes abortion drugs. With the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, such legal maneuvers are intensifying, amid rising medication abortions now enabled by telehealth.
Rodriguez's complaint claims the medication was mailed to his girlfriend's estranged husband and used twice to end pregnancies, allegedly under family pressure. According to the suit, the girlfriend is pregnant again, and Rodriguez fears that her estranged spouse "will again pressure [her] to kill [Rodriguez's] unborn child and obtain abortion pills from Coeytaux to commit the murder," per the Texas Tribune. Rodriguez, who says he's suing on behalf of "all current and future fathers of unborn children," has also filed a separate suit in Texas against the girlfriend's family members.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
