A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted a Spring man on first-degree felony charges after prosecutors say he secretly crushed an abortion pill into his pregnant girlfriend’s drink, killing their unborn daughter without the mother’s knowledge or consent.
Jon Rueben Gabriel Demeter, 25, was indicted this week on charges of performance of an abortion and injury to a child. Both are first-degree felonies carrying a possible sentence of five years to life in prison. He has been held in the Montgomery County Jail without bond since his arrest in late February, when he was initially charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Montgomery County District Attorney Mike Holley said the case may be the first of its kind prosecuted under Texas’ abortion performance statute against someone with no medical background or license. “This may be the first use of the statute under these circumstances in the state of Texas,” Holley said. He drew a distinction between Demeter and the Houston-area midwife charged last year under the Texas Human Life Protection Act, noting that Demeter had no connection to the medical profession whatsoever.
According to a search warrant, the woman was at Demeter’s home on February 20 when he handed her a bottle containing a white milky substance he described as a passion fruit electrolyte drink. Investigators say he was insistent that she drink all of it. The woman told detectives the drink tasted bitter and fizzy. Within hours, she became ill, went to an urgent care facility, and was transferred to a hospital, where she delivered a stillborn baby girl. The pregnancy was approximately 14 weeks along.
During a search of Demeter’s home, investigators found white powder residue inside a glass bowl along with evidence of a crushed pill. Demeter admitted to investigators that he ordered abortion medication online and had it shipped to his residence, though he denied putting the pills in the drink and told investigators he had given them away. Investigators identified the drug as mifepristone, which is illegal in Texas under the state’s abortion ban.
That mifepristone was apparently available for online purchase and home delivery underscores a fight Texas officials have been waging on multiple fronts.
In February, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil enforcement lawsuit against Aid Access, an Austria-based abortion-by-mail organization, alleging it and affiliated providers were illegally prescribing and shipping abortion pills into Texas from out of state. That action followed cease-and-desist letters Paxton’s office sent in August 2025 to organizations including Her Safe Harbor and Plan C.
The previous legislative session also produced House Bill 7, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in September 2025, which took effect in December and created a private civil enforcement mechanism allowing citizens to sue anyone involved in manufacturing, distributing, or mailing abortion-inducing drugs into Texas.
At the federal level, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in early May that a 2023 FDA rule permitting mifepristone to be mailed to patients was unlawfully enacted, though the Supreme Court temporarily blocked that ruling while litigation continues. Texas and Florida have also filed a separate 120-page federal lawsuit targeting the FDA’s original approval of the drug and subsequent rule changes that enabled mail-order distribution.
Investigators say Demeter had made repeated attempts before the incident to pressure the woman into terminating the pregnancy, including offering to pay for her to travel out of state to have the procedure done. She refused each time.
Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle addressed the case publicly. “She had 10 fingers and 10 toes. She was developed about 14 weeks along,” Doolittle said. “That future was stolen before it ever had a chance to begin.”
DA Holley said an investigation remains ongoing with the Texas Attorney General’s Office regarding the website through which Demeter allegedly purchased the pills. It remains unclear whether charges could be brought against the organization that supplied the medication.
Texas law permits abortions only in narrow medical circumstances, performed by a licensed physician, to save the life of the mother or prevent serious physical impairment. “It has never been lawful for someone to perform an abortion in the manner against a woman and against her consent of this nature,” Holley said.
With the new indictment replacing the original charge, Demeter may now be eligible for a bond to be set by a judge. The case is expected to be reset to later this summer.
