Coerced Abortions Climb as Feds Ignore Mail-Order Pills

A Restoration News Investigation

It's illegal to mail abortion drugs anywhere in the United States and has been for more than 150 years. Yet somehow, these drugs are filling mailboxes in every state, and the authorities that would typically respond are nowhere to be found.

It's all the result of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decision to allow dispensation of the abortion drug mifepristone by mail.

For decades, the FDA required women to obtain mifepristone in person from a doctor or under a doctor's supervision. That changed in December 2021, when the Biden FDA lifted the requirement, citing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. In reality, the shift was a political move to get ahead of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which Democrats rightly predicted would overturn the federal right to an abortion.

The FDA made the rule change permanent in 2023. Now, as the Trump Justice Department sits idly by, women across the country are being coerced into aborting their children—in some cases without any knowledge of what they're doing.

Meanwhile, the few states that have tried to curb this crime wave have been blocked at every turn by blue-state "shield laws" designed to do the opposite.

While views may differ on the morality of abortion, one matter on which we should all agree is that no mother should ever be forced to kill her own child. 

Every day that the Trump administration fails to act is another day the door is left open to abuse. Below is a rundown of publicized cases of coerced chemical abortions in the United States since the FDA's last rule change, with the most recent incident occurring just last month.

Brooksville, Florida

Haley Ann Raborn, 24, stands accused of plotting to kill her ex-boyfriend's unborn child with an abortion pill she purchased online from a telehealth doctor.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office arrested Raborn in June 2023 after she allegedly confessed to soliciting her ex-boyfriend to administer the pill to his pregnant ex-fiancée. The ex-boyfriend divulged the plot to his former fiancée, who in turn contacted the sheriff's office.

Raborn has since pleaded not guilty.

Normal, Illinois

Bloomington Police arrested Emerson Evans, 31, of Normal, in August 2025 after they were dispatched to help a pregnant woman experiencing a medical emergency.

"The investigation revealed a suspect administered abortion inducing drugs to the victim without her knowledge or consent," the police department wrote in a Facebook post.

Police reportedly found the victim crying in the bathroom, along with a large amount of blood. Her dead child was found in the toilet.

After police tracked down and arrested Evans, he reportedly told them that he paid "a girl on campus" $50 for the pills. He faces charges of intentional homicide of an unborn child and aggravated battery.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In January 2025, a West Baton Rouge grand jury indicted a 39-year-old Louisiana mother—along with New York-based Dr. Maggie Carpenter and her practice—in connection with an unwanted, drug-induced abortion.

Carpenter is the founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, or ACT, an advocacy group that seeks "to advance telemedicine abortion nationwide." Prosecutors say she shipped abortion pills to the mother, who then told her pregnant teenage daughter to take them.

Court documents show the mother in question—unnamed for her daughter's privacy—has a history of domestic abuse. In 2021, she pleaded guilty to domestic abuse battery for whipping her daughter with a belt. It's unclear whether the victim in that case was the same daughter who had the illegal abortion.

The teen took the pills while she was at home alone. She not only lost her baby but also suffered complications that required emergency medical treatment.

"This minor was excited to have a baby, and she was actually planning a gender reveal party," Gov. Jeff Landry noted in a video message last year. "This pill ended up ending her pregnancy and that baby's life."

The mother has pleaded not guilty to one felony charge of criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs. Carpenter, however, remains at large thanks to New York's abortion shield law, which protects abortionists who facilitate illegal abortions in other states.

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

Rosalie Markezich previously told Restoration News that she felt "ecstatic" upon learning she was pregnant in October 2023. When she told her then-boyfriend, he seemed happy, too.

Then he changed his mind. "And he decided that he had the power to change my mind as well," Markezich said.

Rosalie Markezich

She told Restoration News that her boyfriend used her personal information to order abortion pills online from a California abortionist, Dr. Remy Coeytaux. But when she refused to take the drugs, her boyfriend became erratic.

An altercation in her boyfriend's car left Markezich feeling cornered and terrified. She took the pills he gave her with the intention of discreetly throwing them up, but her efforts to save her baby ultimately failed.

Abortion is illegal in nearly all cases in Louisiana, save those involving a threat to the mother's life or any of her life-sustaining organs. Markezich's story is now at the center of Louisiana's federal lawsuit challenging the FDA's 2023 regulatory changes for mifepristone, which have erased the state's ability to enforce its abortion laws.

The state is also pursuing criminal charges against Coeytaux. That case has been hindered by California's shield law.

Brookline, Massachusetts

Robert Kawada of Brookline, Massachusetts, was arrested in May 2024 on suspicion of tricking his pregnant girlfriend into taking abortion pills he bought online.

Kawada allegedly told the victim the tablets were iron pills and vitamins. She was "initially reluctant to take the pills," but chose to trust Kawada, "especially because his father was an Obstetrics and Gynecology doctor," according to the office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Kawada even allegedly arranged for another person to call his girlfriend posing as a nurse from her doctor's office and urge her to take an iron supplement. The pills caused her to miscarry.

Kawada will stand trial on attempted poisoning and assault and battery charges this October.

Toledo, Ohio

A surgical resident at the University of Toledo had his medical license suspended and now awaits criminal trial after allegedly administering abortion drugs to his pregnant girlfriend without her knowledge or consent.

On Dec. 3, a Lucas County grand jury indicted Dr. Hassan-James Abbas, 32, on six felony charges: abduction, tampering with evidence, disrupting public services, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, identity fraud, and deception to obtain a dangerous drug.

The State Medical Board of Ohio's investigation found that Abbas entered into a sexual relationship with a patient in October 2024. When the patient reportedly informed Abbas that she was pregnant that December, he allegedly told her to abort the child—a suggestion she rebuffed.

Abbas allegedly ordered abortion drugs the next day from an out-of-state telehealth abortionist using his estranged wife's personal information. On Dec. 18, 2024, the patient purportedly awoke to find Abbas "physically on top of her." He then held her down by the neck and "forced a crushed powder inside her bottom lip, beside her gums," per a letter the board sent to Abbas notifying him of his license's suspension.

The patient reportedly fought Abbas off and ran to the kitchen to call the police, at which point he allegedly grabbed her phone and ended the call. The patient then drove herself to the emergency room, where she presented with "vaginal bleeding." Her baby did not survive.

According to the board, Abbas admitted to most of these details but claimed the patient agreed to take the pills. He also allegedly admitted to tossing the remainder of the crushed abortion pills out of his car window on his way to work.

Abbas has pleaded not guilty.

Corpus Christi, Texas

A lawsuit filed last August by Corpus Christi resident Liana Davis accuses U.S. Marine pilot Christopher Cooprider of spiking her hot chocolate with abortion drugs he obtained online.

The complaint alleges that Davis became pregnant with Cooprider's child early last year, and that when he found out about the child, he repeatedly pressured Davis to abort. Texts between the two support her claims, showing Cooprider telling her on various occasions to "get rid of it" and "abort this monstrosity of a situation" as she repeatedly rebuffed his demands.

Undeterred by Davis' refusals, Cooprider allegedly ordered abortion drugs via Aid Access, which will ship abortion pills "anywhere in the U.S."

After allegedly spiking Davis' drink with 10 misoprostol pills, Cooprider reportedly abandoned her to hemorrhage at home. When she finally made it to the hospital, her baby girl was dead.

Cooprider has since filed a countersuit claiming he ordered the pills at Davis' request and that he did not drug her.

Galveston County, Texas

A federal lawsuit filed by Texas man Jerry Rodriguez alleges that his girlfriend was pressured to abort two of his unborn children using abortion pills purchased online.

The July 2025 complaint alleges that his girlfriend's estranged husband ordered abortion pills and then pressured her to take them to terminate her pregnancies in September 2024 and January 2025. Rodriguez claims his girlfriend had expressed her happiness about both babies before taking the pills.

The lawsuit identifies the source of those pills as Coeytaux—the same doctor who allegedly mailed abortion drugs to Markezich's boyfriend.

Like Louisiana, Texas has banned abortion in all cases except to save the mother's life or prevent the impairment of a major bodily function. Rodriguez's lawsuit seeks to permanently block Coeytaux from distributing abortion drugs in violation of state or federal law.

Houston, Texas

Houston attorney Mason Herring admitted in 2024 to spiking his wife's water with an abortion drug in 2022 after learning she was pregnant with their third child.

Herring reportedly told his wife, whom he had separated from, that the pregnancy would "ruin his plans and make him look like a jerk." The pill caused his wife to deliver their daughter 10 weeks early. The little girl now has developmental delays and attends therapy eight times a week.

Herring's plea deal resulted in a sentence of just 180 days in jail and 10 years' probation on the downgraded charges of injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person. But last October, a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison after he was charged with violating a protective order on two separate occasions during supervised visits with his kids.

Montgomery County, Texas

A report of a woman experiencing a miscarriage under suspicious circumstances drew Montgomery County sheriff's deputies to a Woodlands hospital on Feb. 21.

The baby, whom the mother named Presley Mae, was delivered stillborn.

The woman told law enforcement that she suspected her baby's father, Jon Rueben Gabriel Demeter, 25, of Spring, had surreptitiously given her abortion-inducing drugs against her will.

Investigators reportedly found that Demeter had tried to convince the woman to have an abortion "on multiple occasions," even offering to pay for her to travel out of state. "The mother repeatedly refused, expressing her firm intent to carry the pregnancy to term," according to the sheriff's office.

Detectives arrested Demeter on Feb. 23. He has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, though the charges may be upgraded.

Tarrant County, Texas

Justin Anthony Banta

The Parker County Sheriff's Office arrested Justin Anthony Banta in June 2025, eight months after prosecutors say he secretly spiked his pregnant girlfriend's drink with abortion drugs.

The victim told investigators that she began to experience "extreme fatigue and heavy bleeding" a day after meeting Banta at a Tarrant County coffee shop. Her symptoms prompted her to seek emergency medical treatment. Her baby did not survive.

Investigators also believe that Banta, an IT specialist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, performed a remote reset on his phone to destroy incriminating evidence in the case. He faces capital murder and evidence tampering charges.

Gig Harbor, Washington

Former nurse practitioner David Coots was sentenced to more than a year in prison last July after admitting to assaulting and covertly inserting abortion pills into his pregnant patient-turned-mistress.

Coots was married when he and the victim entered a romantic relationship. She told him she was pregnant with his child in January 2024, and he acted supportive. Days later, however, as the pair were having consensual sex, Coots inserted multiple abortion-inducing pills inside the woman without her knowledge or consent. She discovered the pills later when one fell out.

The victim reportedly suffered abnormal bleeding and stomach pain for three days. When she eventually took another pregnancy test, it was negative.

In court, the victim urged the judge not to be swayed by Coots' "good boy act."

"I spent three days at home, unable to eat, vomiting, cramping, and bleeding so much that at times I had to sit and remain in the shower," she testified. "I was scared and trying to hide it all from my daughter. David's concern was only that he silence me."

Coots ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, tampering with a witness, and fourth-degree assault.

Ending the Abuse

The Trump administration has the power to stop this disturbing trend immediately.

First, the FDA could reverse its own policy changes to again require the in-person distribution of abortion drugs in a clinical setting. This would restore a crucial barrier between would-be abusers and their weapon of choice. It would also allow doctors the opportunity to spot and report potential cases of coercion.

Second, the Justice Department could simply choose to enforce federal law. Mailing abortion-inducing drugs anywhere in the United States has long been illegal under the Comstock Act. The Trump administration has no excuse for failing to enforce that law.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), on the other hand, has been a champion for the babies and women falling prey to these dangerous drugs. On March 11, he introduced legislation that would revoke the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, effectively banning chemical abortion nationwide.

“We are here today to issue a call to action, to call on the United States Congress to stand up and protect the innocent unborn, to protect the health and safety of women whose lives are endangered by the chemical abortion drug mifepristone,” Hawley said at a press conference at the Capitol.

He pointed out that the public knows very little about the companies that manufacture and distribute mifepristone, other than that they make a fortune doing so.

Danco Laboratories, the drug’s first U.S. distributor, isn’t even based in the United States, the senator noted. “They’re incorporated in the Cayman Islands—the Cayman Islands! Why? So that they can avoid American liability.”

But Danco’s time of reckoning is now, Hawley said. “It is time for Congress to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion. And it is time for Congress to give the victims, the survivors—many of whom are here today—the right to recover against this company that has inflicted harm on them solely for the purpose of making profits.”

ABORT THE ABORTION PILL:

NEWS: Judge Weighs Blocking Mail-Order Abortion Drugs Nationwide

REPORT: Abortion is Skyrocketing in America Due to the Abortion Pill

INVESTIGATION: The Abortion Pill Industrial Complex Flooding America with Illegal Drugs

COMMENTARY: The Left Loves 'Choice'—Until a Mother Chooses Life

WATCH: Where Does the Pro-Life Movement Go From Here? with Dr. Christina Francis | Restoration Spotlight

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