A Texas man has filed suit against three women — friends of his ex-wife — who he says helped her get abortion medication.
In the wrongful death lawsuit filed on Thursday, Marcus Silva says helping a woman get an abortion is no different from aiding a murder, and he’s asked for $1 million in damages, CBS News reports.
It’s a test of Texas’s draconian anti-abortion law, which allows people to sue those who assist in an abortion but protects women who get one from being held liable.
Silva’s ex-wife took the medication last July, weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion.
Silva’s attorneys are former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell, who helped write one of the state’s anti-abortion laws, Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain, and attorneys from the ulta-conservative legal group Thomas More Society.
“Anyone involved in distributing or manufacturing abortion pills will be sued into oblivion,” Cain said in a statement. “That includes CVS and Walgreens if their abortion pills find their way into our state.”
The lawsuit says the manufacturer of the pills will be named as a defendant as well once it is identified in the discovery process.
Autumn Katz, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement on Friday that Silva’s lawsuit was “an outrageous attempt to scare people” and “intimidate those who support their friends, family and community in their time of need.”
“The extremists behind this lawsuit are twisting the law and judicial system to threaten and harass people seeking essential care and those who help them,” she said.
According to the Washington Post, the district attorney in Galveston will determine if the three women should be charged criminally.
The divorce between Silva and his now-ex-wife was finalized last month. The lawsuit also says that Silva didn’t know his then-wife was pregnant at the time.
Earlier in Texas — where abortions are outlawed except for medical emergencies — five women have sued the state after they say they were denied abortions even though doctors said the pregnancy endangered their lives.
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[FILE – Abortion rights demonstrators attend a rally at the Texas state Capitol in Austin, Texas, May 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)]
