Texas AG sues Aid Access for mailing abortion drugs to residents

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a “radical” abortion pill distribution network that transports abortion drugs into major Texas cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.

Key Takeaways:

• Texas AG Ken Paxton filed suit for injunctive relief against Aid Access and its founder, along with a California abortionist, for mailing the abortion pill to Texas residents.

• Paxton pointed out that this illegal activity has already caused a loss of life.

• The suit marks the latest step in Texas’ broader effort to enforce its pro-life protections.

The Details:

Paxton’s complaint denounces Aid Access for its mail-order abortion business, shipping pills to Texas despite laws banning the sale and shipment of the drugs in the state. Paxton’s suit also singles out Aid Access founder Dr. Rebecca Gomperts and abortionist Dr. Remy Coeytaux of California as part of a “growing network of out-of-state abortion traffickers that deliberately target Texas residents,” as The Texas Tribune reported. 

The lawsuit asserts that Gomperts and Coeytaux conducted abortion procedures in Texas without having legitimate medical licenses. Furthermore, the lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and an injunction to stop Aid Access from offering any additional abortion drugs to people in Texas. 

The lawsuit states:

Together, Defendants advertise, prescribe, and mail mifepristone and misoprostol to Texas residents for the purpose of inducing abortions that are illegal under Texas law.

According to its own website, Aid Access “provide[s] abortion services to all 50 U.S. states including Texas” and ships abortion-inducing drugs to “Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso, or anywhere else in the State of Texas.” Aid Access claims to have facilitated over 200,000 abortions across the United States since its start in 2018....

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed the “in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone” in response to COVID-19, Aid Access responded by entering the U.S. market as a provider of FDA-approved abortion drugs by mail in certain states. “Aid Access used this opportunity to implement a hybrid model: in states where telemedicine abortion was legal, US clinicians handled the prescriptions, while in states where it wasn’t, the pills continued to be mailed from India.”

Later, in 2023, the FDA modified the Mifepristone REMS Program to remove the in-person dispensing requirement, and Aid Access expanded its scope and began providing FDA-approved abortion drugs by mail to all States, regardless of State laws.

Aid Access’s operation has been aided by pro-abortion States, who responded to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215 (2022) by enacting “shield” laws designed to facilitate out-of-state mail-order abortions and prevent states like Texas from enforcing their abortion laws.

The suit marks the latest step in Texas’ broader effort to enforce its strong pro-life protections not only within state borders, but also against out-of-state actors, who officials say are deliberately undermining Texas law.

Filed in Galveston County District Court, Paxton’s lawsuit alludes to new provisions in Texas’ health and safety code via House Bill 7, which forbids the manufacturing and dissemination of abortion-inducing medications within Texas. It also empowers private individuals to file lawsuits demanding up to $100,000 in damages against anyone who produces, ships, distributes, or provides such drugs to or from the state. Pro-abortion critics of HB 7 have slammed the bill as a “bounty hunter” measure.  

The lawsuit fits into a wider pro-life strategy in Texas that uses both criminal law and civil enforcement tools to discourage abortion-pill trafficking.

From July 2023 through September 2024, Aid Access reportedly distributed more than 118,000 packs of abortion drugs across the U.S., including in states where abortion was heavily restricted.

AG Paxton stated in the press release:

“My office will defend the lives of the unborn and relentlessly enforce our state’s pro-life laws against Aid Access and other radicals like it. Every unborn child is a life worth protecting, and Texas law reflects that fundamental truth. Radicals sending abortion-inducing drugs into our state will be held accountable for ending innocent life."

The lawsuit noted:

Aid Access’s illegal acts in Texas are not theoretical—they have already caused the deaths of unborn children across the state. As detailed in recent federal lawsuits Davis v. Cooprider et al., No. 2:25-cv-220 (S.D. Tex. filed Aug. 11, 2025) and Rodriguez v. Coeytaux, No. 3:25-cv-225 (S.D. Tex. filed July 20, 2025), Aid Access and Coeytaux mailed abortion-inducing drugs into Texas that were used to kill unborn children.

One of those cases was that of Galveston county resident Jerry Rodriguez. On February 1, Rodriguez filed suit against Coeytaux; last July, Rodriguez had filed a complaint asserting that the ex-husband of his partner bought abortion drugs from Coeytaux. Rodriguez’s partner took the drugs and ended a pregnancy on September 19, 2024, and another in January 2025, the complaint claimed, with Rodriguez stating that he was the biological father in both cases.

Zoom In:

For pro-life Texans who have long pushed for stronger safeguards against chemical abortions, the lawsuit represents a tangible effort to keep out-of-state abortion providers accountable when they prey on Texas women and babies. 

Importantly, the outcome of Paxton’s lawsuit could determine if out-of-state activists and telehealth networks can continue to circumvent Texas’ democratically-implemented safeguards for preborn babies through mail-order distribution (which is already illegal given the federal Comstock laws, which have gone unenforced).

The Bottom Line:

If Paxton is successful, the outcome could boost Texas’ ability to police abortion-pill trafficking and send a clear message that the state will treat chemical abortions with the same seriousness as surgical ones.