Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Louisiana pushed on Tuesday to extradite California Doctor accused of mailing abortion pillsputting a potential test for laws designed to protect telehealth providers who ship abortion pills nationwide.
This is the second time Louisiana has gone after an out-of-state doctor under abortion restrictions, with Republican Gov. Jeff Landry saying on social media that he wants to bring the abortion provider “to justice.” The two criminal cases incite Louisiana, which has some of Stricter abortion laws In the country, against jurisdictions that have enacted what is known as Shield rules For providers who facilitate remote abortions in states where doing so is prohibited.
“Louisiana has a zero-tolerance policy for those who subvert our laws, seek to harm women, and promote abortion,” Landry said in an X post announcing the extradition papers had been sent. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment
Remy Quitao, a doctor in the San Francisco Bay Area, faces a felony charge of having an abortion using abortion-inducing drugs, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Morell announced Tuesday. If convicted, the doctor could face up to 50 years in prison and fines, Morrell said.
An email and phone message seeking comment were left for Coeytaux.
According to court documents, he is accused of mailing mifepristone and misoprostol in 2023 to a Louisiana woman who ordered the medication through Aid Access, a European online telemedicine service. The woman took the combined pills to end her pregnancy, investigators wrote in the indictment, which says authorities confirmed Cueto was the sender.
Morell told the Associated Press that she believes this is “not the only time he has sent abortion pills to our state” and that it “probably won’t be the last time we press charges against him.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy group representing Quitoux against the civil charges, stressed that the criminal charge in Louisiana is an allegation.
“Although we cannot comment on this matter itself, one thing is clear: the state of Louisiana is going after doctors for allegedly harming women, and yet they enforce abortion bans that put women’s lives in danger every day,” Nancy Northup, the group’s president, said in a written statement.
Coeytaux is also the subject of a separate federal lawsuit filed in July in Texas, in which a man claims the doctor illegally provided abortion medication to his girlfriend.
Medical abortion has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2000. Louisiana prohibits abortion at all stages of pregnancy with No exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors convicted of providing abortion services face up to 15 years in prison and a $200,000 fine. Last year, state lawmakers passed additional targeting restrictions Prescribers outside the country Mifepristone and misoprostol were reclassified as controlled Dangerous materials.
The law came after an arrest warrant was issued in Louisiana in a separate case against A New York doctor Accused of sending abortion pills to a pregnant minor. In this case, officials said the minor’s mother ordered the medication online and told her daughter to take it. The mother was later arrested, pleaded not guilty and was released on bail.
This appears to be the first case of its kind since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Louisiana also sought the extradition of that doctor, but New York Governor Kathy Hochul refused, saying her state’s shield laws are designed to protect providers who provide abortion care to patients in states with bans or where telehealth prescribing is restricted. New York and California are among eight states with such protections, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.