Louisiana issues a warrant to arrest California doctor accused of
mailing abortion pills
[September 30, 2025]
By SARA CLINE and GEOFF MULVIHILL
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana is pursuing a criminal case against
another out-of-state doctor accused of mailing abortion pills to a
patient in the state, court documents filed this month revealed.
A warrant for the arrest of a California doctor is a rare charge of
violating one of the state abortion bans that has taken effect since the
U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and allowed
enforcement.
It represents an additional front in a growing legal battle between
liberal and conservative states over prescribing abortion medications
via telehealth and mailing them to patients.
Pills are the most common way abortions are accessed in the U.S., and
are a major reason that, despite the bans, abortion numbers rose last
year, according to a report.
A Louisiana woman says she was forced to take abortion drugs
Louisiana said in a court case filed Sept. 19 that it had issued a
warrant for a California-based doctor who it says provided pills to a
Louisiana woman in 2023.
Both the woman, Rosalie Markezich, and the state attorney's general, are
seeking to be part of a lawsuit that seeks to order drug regulators to
bar telehealth prescriptions to mifepristone, one of the two drugs
usually used in combination for medication abortions.
In court filings, Markezich says her boyfriend at the time used her
email address to order drugs from Dr. Remy Coeytaux, a California
physician, and sent her $150, which she forwarded to Coeytaux. She said
she had no other contact with the doctor.
She said she did not want to take the pills but felt forced to and said
in the filing that “the trauma of my chemical abortion still haunts me”
and that it would not have happened if telehealth prescriptions to the
drug were off limits.
The accusation builds on a position taken by anti-abortion groups: That
allowing abortion pills to be prescribed by phone or video call and
filled by mail opens the door to women being coerced to take them.
“Rosalie is bravely representing many woman who are victimized by the
illegal, immoral, and unethical conduct of these drug dealers,”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement.
The doctor also faces a lawsuit in Texas
Murrill's office did not immediately answer questions about what charges
Coeytaux faces, or when the warrant was issued. But under the state's
ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, physicians convicted of
providing abortion face up to 15 years in prison and $200,000 in fines.
Coeytaux is also the target of a lawsuit filed in July in federal court
by a Texas man who says the doctor illegally provided his girlfriend
with abortion pills.
Email and a telephone message seeking comment were left for Coeytaux.
The combination of a Louisiana criminal case and a Texas civil case over
abortion pills is also playing out surrounding a New York doctor,
Margaret Carpenter. New York authorities are refusing to extradite
Carpenter to Louisiana or to enforce for Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton the $100,000 civil judgment against her.
In the Louisiana case, officials said a pregnant minor’s mother
requested the abortion medication online and directed her daughter to
take them. The mother was arrested, pleaded not guilty and was released
on bond.
[to top of second column]
|
Mifepristone tablets are seen in a Planned Parenthood clinic, July
18, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
 New York officials cite a law there
that seeks to protect medical providers who prescribe abortion
medications to patients in states with abortion bans — or where such
prescriptions by telehealth violate the law.
New York and California are among the eight states that have shield
laws with such provisions, according to a tally by the Guttmacher
Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
The Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine said they “fully expect”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to uphold his state’s
shield law in the new case.
Murrill told The Associated Press that she will sue governors whose
shield laws “purport to protect these individuals from criminal
conduct” in Louisiana.
The legal and political fight over abortion pills is expanding
The legal filings that revealed the Louisiana charge against
Coeytaux are part of an effort for Louisiana, along with Florida and
Texas, to join a lawsuit filed last year by the Republican attorneys
general for Idaho, Kansas and Missouri to roll back federal
approvals for mifepristone.
This year, both Louisiana and Texas have adopted laws to target
out-of-state providers of abortion pills.
The Louisiana law lets patients who receive abortions sue providers
and others. The Texas law goes further and allows anyone to sue
those who prescribe such pills in the state.
Both Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug
Administration Commissioner Marty Makary have said they are
conducting a full review of mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness.
Medication abortion has been available in the U.S. since 2000, when
the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of mifepristone.
A group of 19 Democratic state attorneys general on Monday issued a
statement saying that mifepristone is safe and expressing concern
over an FDA review, which some Republican attorneys general had
called for.
The Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine reiterated in a statement to
The Associated Press that the medication is safe and an “essential
part of women's healthcare.”
The nationwide organization, co-founded by Carpenter, described
Louisiana's legal actions against Coeytaux as “extreme” and said it
is an attempt to “intimidate healthcare providers."
Murrill described the “unlawful distribution” of the pills in
Louisiana as “dangerous,” adding that she will use “any legal means
available" to hold accountable those who violate the state's
abortion laws.
___
Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
