Abortion-access nonprofit sued for wrongful death after alleged dosing incident
A woman in Texas has filed a lawsuit against multiple defendants after she claims she was slipped an abortion pill against her will, resulting in the death of her fetus.
The plaintiff, Liana Davis, said a U.S. Marine named Christopher Cooprider secretly dissolved 10 abortion pills into a cup of hot chocolate he prepared for her. According to the complaint, Cooprider served the drink to Davis and then fled the scene, leaving Davis home alone with her children.
The alleged incident happened on April 5.
In response, Davis is suing Cooprider, along with Aid Access—a nonprofit that provides nationwide access to abortion pills via telehealth—and its founder, Rebecca Gomperts, MD. She alleges that, collectively, the lot is responsible for the wrongful death of her unborn child.
Davis said she bled profusely after being dosed with the abortion pills. Cooprider has not commented on the accusations against him, and he has not been charged with any crime stemming from the alleged incident.
In her complaint, Davis said she was pressured by Cooprider to get an abortion before the latter used Aid Access to obtain the pills. Per the lawsuit, Cooprider held a “trust building night” with Davis after the drugs arrived via mail from Aid Access. He allegedly then made her hot chocolate and slipped her what is assumed to be misoprostol, an abortion drug that dissolves slowly in the mouth.
However, misoprostol is usually only effective when used alongside mifepristone, which must be swallowed. In the lawsuit, Davis assumes she ingested both substances.
She claims she found the box from Aid Access in her house after Cooprider left, which was marked as containing mifepristone. She also said she found an orange pill bottle that contained both abortion drugs.
After the alleged dosing, Davis went to the ER, where she was found to have miscarried her eight-week pregnancy. There isn’t a reliable medical test to determine if abortion pills are the cause.
If the claim is true, Cooprider could be charged under Texas law with felony murder.
Activist lawyer opts to represent Davis
Taking up Davis’s case is Jonathan Mitchell, an attorney known for his anti-abortion activism. Mitchell has worked on reproductive policy in the state, including the “heartbeat” law that bans abortion in Texas at six weeks.
He is seeking punitive damages on behalf of his client and accusing Aid Access, Cooprider and Gomperts of violating Texas criminal law.
In June, Mitchell filed a federal lawsuit against a California doctor who mailed abortion pills into Texas, alleging that doing so is a violation of the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that bans sending “obscene” and abortion-related material through the U.S. Postal Service.
That case has yet to be heard in front of a judge, and it marks the first interstate wrongful death case related to abortion since the end of Roe v. Wade. Its outcome could be tied to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Davis, as Mitchell is evoking the Comstock Act again in his case against Aid Access, et al.
None of the defendants has commented publicly on the pending litigation.
Autonomy News was the first to report the news.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.