A man has filed a complaint against three women who he says provided his ex-girlfriend with abortion pills to end her pregnancy in Texas, a conservative state where abortion is now illegal. These lawsuits seem to be a first since the U.S. Supreme Court’s about-face, which blasted the right to abortion in June 2022. And they attack pills that have become crucial for access to abortion in the country.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, notes that anyone assisting a woman with an abortion can be prosecuted for murder, under Texas law. The plaintiff, Marcus Silva, claims his ex-wife became pregnant in July 2022, while they were still married, and hid her pregnancy from him. He accuses three women of having helped his former partner to have an abortion, by providing her with abortion pills, and relies on private messages between them.
The ex-partner is not the subject of legal proceedings
In the text messages, which appear to have been sent in a friendly setting, two of these women explain to the ex-girlfriend of Marcus Silva how to obtain these pills. The third woman cited would then be responsible for delivering the drugs, according to the complainant. The plaintiff even intends to sue the manufacturer of the abortion pills used by his ex-wife, if he is identified, according to the complaint. The ex-girlfriend of Marcus Silva, however, is not the subject of prosecution.
Abortion pills are at the heart of the battle for access to abortion in the United States, where 54% of abortions performed are medical. These stamps are seen as essential for the defenders of this right. Women in the fifteen or so states where abortion is illegal can travel to neighboring states to obtain the pills, a simpler procedure than surgery. For the same reasons, opponents of abortion want to ban them at all costs.
Marcus Silva is also represented by a local Republican elected official and by conservative lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, architect of the recent very restrictive Texas law on abortion. A conservative Texas judge must also decide soon on the authorization granted to the abortion pill by the drug regulator. A long-awaited decision, because it could lead to a ban on these stamps throughout the United States.