A US doctor accused of mailing abortion pills across state lines could face up to 50 years in prison if extradited and convicted, highlighting the severe personal risks doctors now face under America’s post-Roe abortion laws.

Dr Remy Coeytaux, a physician based in San Francisco Bay in California, has been charged with providing abortion-inducing drugs to a woman living in Louisiana.

The state sent an extradition order to California on a charge that claimed, in 2023, Dr Coeytaux had mailed mifepristone and misoprostol to the woman, who had obtained the medication through Aid Access, a European online telemedicine service.

Investigators allege the woman subsequently took the drugs to terminate her pregnancy and that Dr Coeytaux was confirmed as the sender.