Attorney General Liz Murrill has obtained an indictment for a California doctor who she alleges sent abortion pills to Louisiana in violation of state law.
Murrill said in a news release Tuesday that Dr. Rémy Coeytaux has been charged in St. Tammany Parish with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs. She has asked Gov. Jeff Landry to approve an extradition warrant to bring Coeytaux to Louisiana to face the charge, though California authorities are unlikely to cooperate.
In 2024, Louisiana classified the reproductive health drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled dangerous substances, the same designation given to drugs with the potential for addiction and abuse such as Valium and Xanax. The medications are the most commonly prescribed for abortion, but they also have other life-saving medical uses.
Louisiana became the first state to set criminal penalties for anyone who handles mifepristone and misoprostol without proper clearance. Offenses can be punished by one to 50 years in prison, depending on the circumstances.
The indictment, handed down Jan. 8 in St. Tammany Parish, follows an arrest warrant for Coeytaux issued in May 2024 for allegedly mailing abortion pills to a patient in Louisiana.
“This is not healthcare; it’s drug dealing,” Murrill said in a news release. “Individuals who flagrantly and intentionally violate our laws by sending illegal abortion pills into our state placing women in danger. We’ve seen the proof of that, with women showing up in emergency rooms after taking these pills and being coerced into abortions.”
Coeytaux did not immediately respond to a message left at his office phone number, and a representative with the Center for Reproductive Rights responded to an email sent to Coeytaux’s office. The organization represents Coeytaux in a separate civil lawsuit.
Louisiana issued an arrest warrant for “a California-based doctor” in 2024 after learning about what happened to Markezich, according to the lawsuit. A copy of Coeytaux’s arrest warrant that Murrill’s office provided Tuesday does not name Markezich, but it details a “complainant” who purchased abortion medication online in October 2023. The warrant links Coeytaux to AidAccess, an Austria-based business that ships medication to the United States.
This is the second instance of Murrill bringing charges against an out-of-state physician for prescribing abortion medication to a Louisiana. A year ago, a West Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter of New York for providing pills to a Port Allen woman for her pregnant daughter, who was a minor at the time.
Attempts to extradite Carpenter to face prosecution in Louisiana have run into a New York “shield law” that protects telehealth providers from criminal consequences in states that have outlawed abortion. California has similar protections for its health care provides against investigations and prosecutions from other states.