Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) is sending an extradition demand to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to prosecute a California doctor who prescribed abortion pills to a Louisiana woman.
Landry said on Tuesday he was in the process of signing the extradition paperwork for Remy Coeytaux, who was indicted by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill.
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“Louisiana has a zero tolerance policy for those who subvert our laws, seek to hurt women, and promote abortion,” Landry wrote on X. “I know Gavin Newsom supports abortion in all its forms, but that doesn’t work in Louisiana. We are unapologetically pro-life.”
Coeytaux allegedly mailed mifepristone and misoprostol to a woman in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, in October 2023, according to the extradition documents. The woman took the abortion medication, causing the termination of her pregnancy. Louisiana authorities confirmed Coeytaux sent the pills.
The San Francisco Bay Area-based doctor is being charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs in Louisiana. If convicted, he faces up to 50 years in prison and fines.
Coeytaux also faces a federal lawsuit filed in Texas, where he is accused of illegally providing abortion medication to a man’s girlfriend.
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The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Coeytaux in the Texas case, said Louisiana’s allegations against its client “are unproven and should not be reported as fact.” The organization could not comment on the Louisiana case itself, but it criticized the state for “going after doctors for allegedly harming women” while “enforcing an abortion ban that puts women’s lives at risk every day.”
Murrill signed the criminal arrest warrant for Coeytaux and entered his name into the National Crime Information Center. The Republican attorney general vowed to prosecute the doctor and hold California accountable for protecting him. She likened the physician’s actions to “illegal drug trafficking.”
California is one of eight states that have enacted shield laws since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Such laws shield abortion providers in states where abortion is legal from out-of-state legal actions, both criminal and civil.
Louisiana has in place a near-total abortion ban, which provides very limited exceptions for abortion in the event that the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. The state lacks exceptions for rape or incest.
Landry previously sent an extradition request to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) to prosecute a doctor, who is similarly accused of mailing abortion pills to a Louisiana resident. Invoking the shield law in New York, Hochul refused to authorize the extradition.
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Newsom has not publicly responded to Landry’s pending extradition request in the California case.
Murrill is scheduled to testify on the dangers of mail-order abortion drugs before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee at 10 a.m. Wednesday.