A wrongful death case has been filed by a Texas man against three women alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in obtaining abortion pills, in one of the first significant legal challenges under a state abortion ban since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Marcus Silva, the plaintiff, filed the complaint on Thursday in Galveston County, Texas.
He claims that three Texas women are responsible for the death of his ex-wife because they assisted her in getting abortion drugs to end a pregnancy in July 2022.
Each of the women is being sued for $1 million in damages.
Texas is one of about a dozen states that have imposed a complete abortion prohibition since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June 2022, abolishing federal abortion rights.
In Texas, it is unlawful to "aid or abet" abortions, which is what Jackie Noyola, Amy Carpenter, and Aracely Garcia are accused of doing in the complaint, Reuters reported.
The defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.
"Defendants Noyola, Carpenter, and Garcia all knew that they were aiding or abetting a self-managed abortion, which is a wrongful act and a criminal act of murder under Texas law," the lawsuit argued.
According to the lawsuit, Brittni Silva, who divorced her husband in February, is not a defendant and is immune from criminal and civil liability under state law.
Photos of text messages apparently between Brittni Silva, Noyola and Carpenter, attached as exhibitions in the court documents, show the women discussing Silva's pregnancy and her desire to get abortion pills in Texas.
"If I don't have to travel that would make things so much easier," Silva wrote, according to the screenshots.
The screenshots of the text messages from Noyola and Carpenter reveal links to websites where people can obtain the two-pill regimen and their offers to allow Silva self-manage her abortion at their houses.
Garcia, the third defendant, is accused in the case of facilitating the shipment of the tablets to Houston.
Briscoe Cain, a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, and Jonathan Mitchell, who is recognized as one of the architects of the six-week prohibition in Texas that went into force in September 2021, are the attorneys for Marcus Silva.
The law mentioned above prohibited abortion beginning at six weeks of pregnancy and created a novel enforcement method.
It allows citizens to file civil lawsuits against anyone they believe violated the law by aiding, abetting or providing an abortion to a woman past that point, for damages exceeding $10,000.
A status hearing in the case has been set for June 8.
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