Louisiana Wants A California Doctor Extradited To Face Abortion Charges. Newsom Isn't Having It.

SACRAMENTO, California— Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he is refusing to extradite a California doctor accused of violating Louisiana's abortion laws.

The governor's rebuff of Louisiana, a Republican stronghold with some of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, underscores efforts by Newsom and the state's Democrat-controlled Legislature to protect California doctors from legal attacks by other states since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued an indictment for Healdsburg doctor Remy Coeytaux and sought his extradition. Coeytaux was charged with “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs.”

“Louisiana’s request is denied,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will not allow extremist politicians from other states to reach into California and try to punish doctors based on allegations that they provided reproductive health care services. Not today. Not ever.”

According to court documents, Coeytaux is part of AidAccess, an Austrian telemedicine group that mails abortion medication. The extradition request alleges that for $150, Coeytaux sent two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, through the mail to a woman in St. Tammany Parish.

In a court filing cited by the Associated Press, the woman alleged that it was her boyfriend who ordered the pills and forced her to take them.

Coeytaux could not be immediately reached for comment.

The medications, when taken in tandem during the first trimester of a pregnancy, are the most common method of abortion in the U.S. The practice has been the subject of national debate as conservatives in Washington, D.C., try to crack down on telehealth and mail-order prescriptions of the pills.

The case marks the second time Louisiana has gone after an abortion doctor across state lines. Last year, a grand jury indicted a New York doctor. 

“This is not healthcare; it’s drug dealing,” Murril said in a statement. “Individuals who flagrantly and intentionally violate our laws by sending illegal abortion pills into our state placing women in danger.”

In refusing the extradition request, Newsom cited an executive order he signed in June 2022 that established the state would not participate in the prosecution of reproductive health care providers practicing legally in California.

In addition to that order, California passed a series of “shield laws” that protect California doctors from professional, legal or civil consequences for performing abortions, while also allowing them to prescribe the abortion drugs without putting their names on packaging.

Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who authored the California law allowing doctors to prescribe the medication anonymously, said conservative states like Louisiana are pursuing a legal strategy to intentionally test these laws.

“Even though I feel for the person who voluntarily sought abortion medication and later had second thoughts, their experience shouldn’t undermine access to safe, legal medical treatments for patients who seek them, or punish health care providers who are doing their jobs and caring for patients,” she said in a statement.