Texas man abandons suit against women he claimed helped ex-wife get abortion

A Texas man who sued three women for allegedly helping his ex-wife obtain abortion pills has dropped his claims – prompting abortion rights advocates to declare victory in the first case of its kind to be brought since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Galveston County in March 2023, claimed that helping someone obtain an abortion qualifies as murder under the state’s homicide law and the abortion ban that took effect shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, allowing a Texas man to sue under the wrongful-death statute. The man, Marcus Silva, had been seeking at least $1 million in damages from each of the defendants.

Silva, who identified himself as the “father of the unborn child,” agreed to drop the case late Thursday after several different state courts refused to compel his ex-wife and the three defendants to provide additional information. One Texas Supreme Court justice called attention to what he described as Silva’s “disgracefully vicious harassment and intimidation of his ex-wife.”

Silva could not be reached for comment Friday. One of his attorneys, Briscoe Cain, said “the parties have executed a settlement agreement and all claims and counterclaims have been dismissed.”

Amy Carpenter, one of the defendants, told the Washington Post that the lawsuit had been “a disgusting abuse of power.”

“You can’t use the legal system to bully and harass your victims,” she added. “You won’t win.”

There was no money exchanged in connection with Silva’s decision to drop the case, Carpenter said. The resolution of the case was announced late Thursday in a one-page filing under the headline, “notice of non-suit.”

As the use of abortion pills has spiked in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe, antiabortion advocates have been grasping for ways to crack down on the medications, which have continued to flow freely through the mail into all 50 states, including states with strict abortion bans.

Silva’s case was the first lawsuit targeting those who help facilitate a medication abortion in a state where abortion is illegal. National abortion rights groups spoke out in support of the defendants, describing the case as an attempt to deter women in antiabortion states from seeking abortion pills.

“The bigger picture is that this was a very high-profile attempt to use the civil justice system to go after abortion pill distribution post-Dobbs, and it failed,” said David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University who specializes in abortion issues. If the case had gone forward, he added, “it could have sent a message to people obtaining pills … that they are at risk.”

Carpenter and Jackie Noyola, a second defendant in the case, said they first heard about the case in March 2023 when they started receiving messages from media and lawyers offering to represent them. They immediately started Googling around. Reading the complaint, they said, they were shocked to see their names in the same sentence as the phrase, “conspired … to murder” an “unborn child.”

“I felt just numb in that moment,” said Noyola. “Like, wait why is there the word ‘murder’ next to my name in so many places?”

Soon after that, Silva attempted to serve the two women at their jobs, they said.

“It felt gross,” Carpenter said. “You feel like you have safe places where no one is going to access you.”

Silva was represented by two prominent conservative attorneys – Jonathan Mitchell, widely known as the architect of a novel 2021 Texas abortion ban, and Cain, a Republican member of the Texas House. After filing the lawsuit on Silva’s behalf, Mitchell, who declined to comment, has since filed legal action probing several other women who obtained abortions in the wake of Roe, including one who obtained an abortion in a state where abortion remains legal.

Silva alleged that in July 2022, when the couple were still married, his wife found out she was pregnant but concealed it from him.

His lawsuit claimed that two of the defendants had exchanged text messages with Silva’s wife, discussing how and where she could obtain the medication to end her pregnancy. A third defendant arranged for the delivery of the medication, the complaint alleged.

“We have pills here in Houston,” read a message that one of the women shared with the group, according to the complaint. “So no you wouldn’t have to fly. You could get them from us or your could order some online.”

Silva’s complaint included as exhibits many of the text messages allegedly exchanged among the group of women. In the texts, one woman shares information provided by an organization that ships abortion pills and says the woman can take them at her home.

“Your help means the world to me,” responds Silva’s ex-wife, who is exempt from civil and criminal liability under Texas law. “Im so lucky to have y’all.”

Carpenter and Noyola said they had not been affiliated with any abortion rights advocacy groups before the lawsuit. They were just trying to help out a friend, they said.

Silva and his ex-wife divorced shortly before the lawsuit was filed, according to the court documents.

During the course of the lawsuit, Mitchell tried to obtain wide-ranging discovery, including all communications the defendants had with each other and with Silva’s ex-wife. Those attempts were also ultimately unsuccessful.

Silva’s ex-wife shared with the court transcripts of recordings of the verbal abuse she said she experienced from Silva ahead of the lawsuit being filed, including threats to persecute her if she didn’t have sex with him and do his laundry, according to court records. He also threatened to send sex videos of her to her employer and her family and friends, according to the transcripts.

In a concurring opinion with a lower court’s decision not to compel Silva’s ex-wife to provide additional information, one justice on the Texas Supreme Court condemned Silva’s behavior.

“I can imagine no legitimate excuse for Marcus’s behavior as reflected in this record, many of the details of which are not fit for reproduction in a judicial opinion,” wrote the justice, Jimmy Blacklock, who was appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Carpenter and Noyola filed a countersuit against Silva in May 2023, a few months after the original lawsuit was filed. They argued that Silva knew about his ex-wife’s plans to have an abortion before she took the pills, but did nothing to stop her – a move they said showcased the true nature of his lawsuit against them.

“He wasn’t interested in stopping her from terminating a possible pregnancy,” the lawsuit said. “Instead, he wanted to obtain evidence he could use against her if she refused to stay under his control, which is precisely what he tried to do.”

When discussions about a settlement began this week, Carpenter and Noyola said, they emphasized to their lawyers the importance of being able to speak out about what happened to them.

“I want (Mitchell and Silva) to see that they didn’t win. We’re not fragile, scared women,” Noyola said.

Men like that, she added, “hate to face a strong woman.”