California refuses to extradite doctor over abortion pill: ‘Not today. Not ever’

California will defy Louisiana’s request to extradite a doctor indicted for mailing abortion pills into the southern state, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said on Wednesday.

“Louisiana’s request is denied,” Newsom, a Democrat, 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.”

Louisiana’s attorney general, Republican Liz Murrill, announced on Wednesday that her state would seek the extradition of the doctor, Remy Coeytaux. In records released by Murrill’s office, law enforcement officials allege that Coeytaux, who is based in California, mailed pills to a woman in Louisiana in October 2023 through Aid Access, an organization that mails abortion pills throughout the US, in defiance of Louisiana’s near-total ban on abortion.

Aid Access providers operate under the protection of “shield laws”, which aim to guard abortion providers from out-of-state extradition and prosecution. A handful of blue states, including California, passed shield laws following the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade – a development that has infuriated abortion opponents, who argue that shield laws are illegal.

“It’s appalling to see the California governor and attorney general openly admitting that they will protect an individual from being held accountable for illegal, medically unethical and dangerous conduct that led to a woman being coerced into terminating the life of her unborn child,” Murrill said in a statement.

The documents released by Murrill’s office do not indicate that the Louisiana woman who received pills from Coeytaux said she was coerced. In a separate court proceeding, over the legality of a common abortion pill called mifepristone, Louisiana revealed last year that it had issued an arrest warrant for a doctor accused of supplying abortion pills to the boyfriend of a woman named Rosalie Markezich. Markezich alleged that her boyfriend obtained abortion pills by filling out an online form for Aid Access and forced her to take pills in October 2023.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Murrill’s office declined to comment on whether Markezich’s case was connected to the extradition order for Coeytaux.

Coeytaux who has been charged with violating a Louisiana statute that bans “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs”. If convicted, Coeytaux could face fines and up to 50 years of “hard labor”.

Louisiana has also previously sought the extradition of a New York-based doctor, Margaret Carpenter, over allegations that she mailed an abortion pill to Louisiana. Like California, New York has a shield law protecting abortion providers. Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic governor, refused the extradition order.