A man from Texas is filing a wrongful death suit against three of his ex-wife’s acquaintances due to their alleged involvement in her obtaining abortion drugs last year.
The lawsuit, which is seeking over a million dollars from each of the three defendants as well as an injunction to stop them from circulating abortion-inducing pills, does not include the woman who had the abortion among its list of defendants. In sum, is an ongoing case that will impact females around the world, three women are facing legal action due to their provision of abortion pills, which is a direct violation of women’s right to choose.
Marcus A. Silva of Galveston County, Texas alleges that his then-wife had an illegal self-managed abortion in July 2022 and concealed it from him.
The complaint states that Silva was unaware of the pregnancy until after his wife had already terminated it. He is seeking damages for emotional distress and negligence on behalf of his unborn child.
The lawsuit is based significantly on the text messages exchanged between Silva’s former spouse and her three friends last year where the women discuss various ways of obtaining abortion pills and the logistics involved in self-managing an abortion at home.
In another message, the then-pregnant woman expresses gratitude to her friends, telling one of them, “your help means the world to me” and adding that she felt “so lucky to have y’all.”
Can the three women be held liable?
Maybe, unfortunately.
Jonathan Mitchell, a renowned attorney who had a hand in the design of Texas’ Senate Bill 8 which was approved and put into effect after the Supreme Court ruled against intervening, is representing Silva.
That bill, now law, is viewed by its opponents as nothing more than a “bounty hunter” system, allowing – and encouraging – private citizens to take civil action against anyone who may have aided in providing an unlawful abortion in the state.
Moreover, the suit, which describes assisting an abortion in Texas as an “act of murder,” insists the defendants were not protected by any federal precedent because the abortion took place after the famous Dobbs ruling.
The suit also states that Silva’s ex-wife is “exempt from civil and criminal liability and Marcus is not pursuing any claims against her.”
In a statement, former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, a senior adviser at Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, said abortion-rights activists are “outraged, but we are not surprised” and accused anti-abortion groups of using the courts “as an instrument of fear and intimidation.”
The new Texas law allowing all of this seems egregious and mean-spirited.
