CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A pre-trial hearing was held Thursday morning in a lawsuit filed by a Corpus Christi woman who claims a Marine pilot poisoned her drink with abortion pills to kill their unborn child.
Federal Judge David S. Morale presided over the hearing that was held via Zoom.
On Aug. 11, a local woman, we have decided not to be identify per her attorney's request, filed a lawsuit against a Marine pilot, who is stationed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, and her company, Aid Access, which manufactured the abortion pill.
The woman, a mother of three, was going through a divorce at the time.
During Thursday's hearing, the pilots defense team requested that this case go to trial, and the plaintiff's attorney told the judge they have been unable to contact Aid Access, which are based out of the Netherlands.
The judge set Oct. 15, 2026, as the deadline for both sides to gather all their evidence and scheduled the trial for March 29, 2027.
This all comes three years after the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating a woman's constitutional right to abortion.
This lawsuit also comes as the use of the abortion pill has increased since the state of Texas passed the "Heartbeat" bill, which banned the majority of abortions in 2021.
Now, state lawmakers are going after the companies, like Aid Access, that send abortion pills into Texas, likely creating a precedent for other states to follow.
The plaintiff's attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, authored the "Heartbeat" bill, a law that bans abortions past six weeks of pregnancy, a point at which a heartbeat is detected on an ultrasound.
"Aid Access has been sending pills into the state ever since Dobbs. They have been doing that illegally, but nothing has been done. Either at the legislative stage of litigation to stop it," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the evidence shows his client wanted to give birth and the father of the unborn child had different plans.
"That is very evident from the text messages displayed in the complaint," Mitchell explained, "There is also quite some other evidence, he went and bought abortion pills without her consent, against her explicit instruction, and repeatedly tried to get her to ingest those pills, and she refused time and time again."
The text messages between the two show the difference in opinion. In it, the defendant told the plaintiff that they were not in love and not together.
He defended his request that she end the pregnancy, because "would be messed up to bring a child into the world without both parents raising them."
This is the text message thread that was submitted as evidence and now accompanies the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff stated that after she received a positive pregnancy test, the pilot told her he was going to order abortion pills for her to take.
The plaintiff claimed the defendant received the pills under his name and he consistently tried to get her to take Mifepristone and Misoprostol, calling them M&M's for short in their text messages.
According to the lawsuit, the defendant still pushed for the plaintiff to end the pregnancy. Even asking him to go to the ultra sound appointment with her, hoping it would change his mind.
The text messages that were sent in the following weeks showed that he wanted her to get an abortion even though she was against it.
On April 2, he proposed to have a "trust-building night" and would make some warm, relaxing tea instead of alcohol, and she agreed.
The lawsuit states that the defendant came over and prepared a hot chocolate for her. It stated "they drank it together while watching T.V. and then, she started cramping and bleeding within 30 minutes of drinking the contaminated hot chocolate.
It goes on to say the plaintiff asked the Marine to help her, telling her he will go get her mother so she could stay with her kids while they drove to the emergency room.
The Marine never picked up her mother or came back to help the plaintiff, leaving her to bleed.
In the end he apologized and said he had to prepare for his flight the following day.
The plaintiff then got a ride from a neighbor to Corpus Christi Medical Center's Bay Area Hospital, where she lost her eight week old baby.
A few months later, the plaintiff hired to Mitchell to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the plaintiff.
"The law is already clear that you can't do this sort of thing. If you do covertly split abortion pills into a pregnant woman's drink or food, you will be facing civil liability for wrongful death but potential criminal charges as well," Mitchell said.
We reached out to the Corpus Christi Police Department to ask whether criminal charges were filed in this case.
The department released the following statement:
"We assigned a highly experienced family violence, detective with over 12 years of experience, after conducting an extremely thorough investigation into the allegation with existing evidence and medical records and interviews with those involved, hospital medical staff, the complainant's OBGYN's and the Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office. The results were shared with the Nueces County District Attorney's office, and after careful review both agencies concluded that the elements of a crime could not be established and the investigation was closed. We are confident if a third party would review the investigation they could come to a similar conclusion."
The Corpus Christi Police Department then asked us to submit a public information request for further information.
The agency denied that request, sending this letter to the Texas Attorney General's Office… requesting them to block our request due to confidential information.
We also reached out to the District Attorney's Office, which confirmed the case was presented as a murder case but said there were credibility issues that were pretty concerning, even interviewing the plaintiff's OBGYN, who said this was an at-risk pregnancy and she thought it was most likely a natural miscarriage.
KRIS 6 also reached out to the Marine pilot's commanding officer on whether he is still actively training. They confirmed he is and said they are aware of the civil lawsuit but cannot comment on civil litigation.
In the meantime, Mitchell said his client has been through a lot.
"I think she is doing as well as she can under the circumstances... and hope that we can bring the people who did this to justice and hold them accountable for what they did," Mitchell said, "This horrific act of murder under Texas law... This is just the first step in what will be other legal proceedings for the perpetrator who did this."
Mitchell said he hopes to make this case an example that could change the way women have access to abortion pills in the state.
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