A Texas man has escalated his federal lawsuit against a California doctor accused of mailing abortion pills into Texas.
Jerry Rodriguez filed the amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, building on his original suit from the summer of 2025. The case alleges Dr. Remy Coeytaux shipped abortion medication to Rodriguez’s girlfriend at the behest of her estranged husband, leading to the end of a pregnancy in September 2024.
The updated filing maintains core claims that the action violated Texas and federal laws, including wrongful death provisions, and now incorporates Texas’ new House Bill 7, which took effect December 4, 2025.
Known as the Woman and Child Protection Act, the law permits private citizens to sue those who manufacture, distribute, mail, or provide abortion pills to or from Texas, with damages starting at $100,000 per violation.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, who played a key role in crafting Texas’ abortion ban, signaled in the amendment that drug manufacturers or distributors could be added as defendants if identified through discovery.
The lawsuit no longer seeks to represent a class of all current and future fathers of unborn children nationwide, instead centering on Rodriguez’s personal claims. It expands on allegations of a second abortion in January 2025, stating that Rodriguez and the woman attended a medical appointment together, obtained sonogram images, and that the termination occurred at the estranged husband’s home using pills he allegedly supplied.
Additionally, the filing targets California’s abortion shield law, requesting an injunction to prevent Coeytaux from pursuing damages against Rodriguez or his lawyers under that statute, which allows providers to counter certain abortion-related suits.
Mitchell wrote in the amended complaint: “If discovery reveals that Coeytaux has mailed, transported, delivered, prescribed, or provided any abortion-inducing drug to any person or location in Texas since HB 7 took effect on December 4, 2025, then Mr. Rodriguez will seek to recover at least $100,000.00 for each of those statutory violations.”
Successful plaintiffs not directly related to the fetus receive only 10% of damages, with the rest going to a charity of their choice. Women taking the pills, including after miscarriages, cannot be sued.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, representing Coeytaux, condemned the suit as an effort to undermine women’s choices. “This law goes against everything Texans value. It’s anti-freedom, anti-privacy, and anti-family,” Marc Hearron, associate litigation director at the center, said in a news release.
The case remains pending.