By Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune
Almost two years ago, a Galveston man sued his ex-wife’s friends for wrongful death after they allegedly helped her obtain pills to terminate her pregnancy. The first-of-its-kind lawsuit set off a panic about a potential new avenue of abortion criminalization in post-Roe v. Wade America.
On Thursday, the claims were dropped with nothing to show for them.
This shocking test case was filed by Jonathan Mitchell, an anti-abortion legal crusader responsible for Texas’ novel ban on abortions through private lawsuits. That gambit, commonly known as SB 8, survived a court challenge. This wrongful death suit, which demanded $1 million each from the two women for their “murderous actions,” did not make it that far.
The case settled with both sides dropping their claims just before it was set to go to trial Monday. No financial payment was made to either Silva or the women he sued, Elizabeth Myers, the defendants’ attorney, confirmed in response to a question about the terms of the settlement. Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.
The original lawsuit alleged that Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter helped their friend obtain abortion-inducing medication after she found out she was pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband Marcus Silva. The women countersued, alleging Silva knew about the abortion and did nothing to stop it.
Silva’s ex-wife, who was not a party to either lawsuit, previously asked the court to dismiss the claims or at least not require her to produce documents or testify. She introduced text messages that allegedly show Silva using the threat of the lawsuit to try to get back together.
“So now he’s saying if I don’t give him my ‘mind body and soul’ until the end of the divorce which he’s going to drag out, he’s going to make sure I go to jail for [getting the abortion],” she said in a text message to her friends.
The case was preparing to go to trial this month after several continuances. Carpenter told The Texas Tribune Friday that she was relieved the case was over.
“But unfortunately, it’s not just going to go away,” she said. “The reality is that you can Google our names and the word ‘murderer’ comes up for us, for supporting our friend … but we’re still pretty angry that this whole thing was able to be brought forward to begin with.”
A 19-month ordeal
In March 2023, Noyola and Carpenter were at lunch together when they learned they were being sued. She had received an email from a lawyer offering to represent her in the wrongful death lawsuit that had just been filed against her.
“We thought it was a joke initially, to be real honest,” Carpenter said. “It seemed like a prank that Marcus would do, like he was trying to mess with us.”
Noyola, Carpenter and Silva’s ex-wife all worked together, and were good friends. It was just a month after the overturn of Roe v. Wade that she came to them, asking for help to terminate a pregnancy. The pair helped her obtain the medications, according to Silva’s lawsuit, which does not disclose how far along the pregnancy was, and conceal the process from him. In their lawsuit, the women presented evidence that Silva found the pills and knew about his wife’s plans to terminate the pregnancy, but did not stop her.
Noyola and Carpenter say they were aware there might be a risk in helping their friend, especially considering the legal uncertainty around abortion in the weeks and months post-Roe. But they helped her anyway.
“Our initial reaction was just, ‘Oh, you have a problem. We’re going to help you figure out a solution to this problem. We’re just going to do whatever we need to do to take care of this,’” Carpenter said.
The lawsuit alleged that Noyola, Carpenter and another woman engaged in a conspiracy to bring about the wrongful death of “Baby Boy Silva,” and each owed Silva $1 million. The lawsuit alleges that assisting a self-managed abortion qualifies as murder under state law, which would allow Silva to sue under the wrongful death statute.
Merits of the case
In addition to masterminding Texas’ SB 8, former Texas Solicitor General Mitchell has made a name for himself aggressively litigating conservative causes, filing challenges to the Affordable Care Act, affirmative action and confidential contraception for teens. He defended President Donald Trump at the U.S. Supreme Court and has led a legal fishing expedition for records related to out-of-state abortions.
His lawsuits tend to be headline-getting and politically inflammatory, and this was no exception. But Mary Ziegler, a legal expert on reproductive rights and law professor at the University of California, Davis who follows Mitchell and anti-abortion lawsuits closely, said this case surprised her.
“This was a little bit of a weird thing for him, because it seemed like there were obvious obstacles to this working in court,” she said.
But even if it never goes anywhere, the filing of a lawsuit like this capitalizes on the confusion around the abortion laws and creates a chilling effect for people seeking abortions, Ziegler said.
“These laws are just a disgusting gift to abusers,” Carpenter said. “That’s who they’re written for, because no decent human is going to try to criminalize people for helping their friend.”
Noyola and Carpenter said they were prepared to take this case to trial and are somewhat disappointed they won’t have a chance to face Silva in court, they said. Neither women were involved in abortion advocacy before this case, but having been supported by groups like If/When/How, a reproductive rights legal advocacy group, they feel inspired to join the movement.
“The goal was to scare and to keep women quiet and I think for Jackie and I, it’s done the complete opposite of that,” Carpenter said. “If anything, it’s made us more emboldened.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/11/texas-abortion-assistance-lawsuit-dropped/.
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