A Texas woman is suing an abortion pill supplier and a former partner after she alleged he spiked her drink with abortifacient drugs without her knowledge, terminating her pregnancy without her consent.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the woman alleged that when she became pregnant earlier this year, her former partner Christopher Cooprider tried to pressure her to have an abortion, but she refused. OSV News is withholding her name for privacy reasons.
According to the complaint, Cooprider ordered mifepristone and misoprostol, the two drugs used in a medication or chemical abortion, against her wishes, through the abortion pill supplier Aid Access, using his own name.
Aid Access ships abortion pills to the U.S. from abroad. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News.
After she repeatedly declined to take the drug regimen, Cooprider then "murdered (the victim's) unborn child by secretly dissolving abortion pills into a hot beverage that he had prepared and tricking (her) into drinking it," the lawsuit stated.
After she began "hemorrhaging and cramping" after consuming a hot beverage prepared by Cooprider, the complaint said, the victim "discovered the box of mifepristone that Cooprider had purchased from Aid Access, which still had the label with Cooprider’s name on it. The box was opened and the mifepristone pill was missing from its blister pack."
With the help of a neighbor, the woman sought medical attention and turned over the packaging to police. Cooprider gave the woman more than double the recommended dosage of the drug, a person familiar alleged.
Reached by phone, Cooprider declined to comment.
Texas law bans most abortions, which the woman appeared to mention among her objections to having an abortion in texts included in the complaint. The attorney behind the case is former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell, known for his role in crafting Texas' abortion ban, one of the most strict in the country. However, the wrongful death suit does not list the Texas Heartbeat Act (S.B. 8) as among the state laws it says were violated. Mitchell declined to comment on the lawsuit.
In the text messages prior to the incident, the woman also described the baby as "a blessing" despite difficult circumstances.
In 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a challenge to mifepristone, finding that the challengers lacked standing to bring the case.
The coalition of pro-life opponents of the drug, the first of the two drugs used in a medication or chemical abortion, filed suit over loosened restrictions on the drug by the Food and Drug Administration, which included making it available by mail, arguing the government violated its own safety standards in doing so.
The FDA argued in response the drug poses statistically little risk to the mother in the early weeks of pregnancy.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.
