A Texas woman sued the father of her child for wrongful death Aug. 11, claiming that he laced her drink with abortion pills and murdered their unborn baby eight weeks into her pregnancy.
According to the complaint, Christopher Cooprider obtained abortion drugs online after his nextdoor neighbor became pregnant with his child earlier this year. The mother wanted to keep the baby, telling Cooprider, “It would be beautiful and loved and looked after,” but he repeatedly tried to convince her to take the abortion drugs.
Cooprider continued to argue with the woman via text about aborting the baby but began bringing the abortion drugs over to her house and leaving them there, hoping that she would decide to go through with the abortion on her own.
According to the complaint, Cooprider then began trying other tactics, even threatening to testify against the woman in her divorce proceedings with her abusive husband, with whom she had three children. The woman alleges that in April, when she was eight weeks pregnant, Cooprider took measures into his own hands, knowing that the abortion drugs were only approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
On April 2, Cooprider proposed having a “trust building night” when the two of them could drink tea and watch a TV show. The complaint states that the woman agreed since she knew she would be co-parenting the child with Cooprider and wanted to get back on good terms with him. Three days later, he came over and prepared hot chocolate for the woman. Within 30 minutes of drinking it, she began hemorrhaging and cramping.
Cooprider told the woman he would pick up her mother to stay with her children while they went to the emergency room. However, he disappeared and did not answer her repeated texts or phone calls for more than half an hour. He finally texted to tell her that he would not help her.
A neighbor drove her to the hospital, where doctors were unable to save her baby. Before leaving for the hospital, however, she found abortion medication with missing pills. According to the complaint, Cooprider put one mifepristone tablet and 10 misoprostol pills in her hot chocolate. Mifepristone kills the unborn baby by blocking progesterone, a necessary hormone to maintain a pregnancy, while misoprostol causes cramping and the expulsion of the baby.
The woman is now suing Cooprider; Aid Access, the company that provided him with the abortion pills; and Rebecca Gomperts, the company’s founder, for the wrongful death of her unborn child. She claims that the three parties violated the Texas Health and Safety Code by providing abortion medication despite not being licensed physicians, failing to comply with required protocols for administering the drugs, and giving her the pills without her consent.
In Texas, abortion is allowed only in situations when the life of the mother is in danger. Any other case of abortion is considered a felony, punishable by jail time. Trafficking abortion pills into the state is also considered a felony.
The Washington Post reported that the complaint also alleges Aid Access violated the Comstock Act, an 1873 federal law that prohibits the mailing of “obscene” materials. US physicians who prescribe abortion pills in pro-life states through Aid Access are protected from prosecution under shield laws, and previous attempts to end abortion pill trafficking by citing the Comstock Act have gone nowhere, the outlet added.
The Post also reported that Aid Access is a nonprofit based in Europe and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of abortion drugs. The outlet added that the lawsuit appears to be the first time a woman has filed a wrongful death abortion suit in federal court. Generally, such lawsuits are filed by men against individuals who helped the mothers of their babies obtain abortions.