Suit: My Ex's Friends Helped Her Get Abortion Pills

Just days ago, five women sued the state of Texas, claiming they were denied abortions, despite the fact there was a deadly risk to them and their fetuses. Now, another abortion complaint in the Lone Star State, but this time in the other direction. A man is suing three women, accusing them of helping his ex-wife acquire abortion medication so she could terminate her pregnancy in the weeks after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, reports the Texas Tribune, which notes this is the first case of its kind since the state's near-total ban on the procedure kicked into effect last summer. According to the wrongful death suit filed in Galveston County, Marcus Silva alleges his then-estranged wife learned she was pregnant in July—two months after she'd filed for divorce, which was finalized in February, per court records—and concealed it from him, per the Washington Post.

"I know either way he will use it against me," the pregnant woman said in text messages included in the complaint, per the Tribune. "If I told him before [about the pregnancy], which I'm not, he would use it as [a way to] try to stay with me." Silva's complaint alleges his ex sought the assistance of two friends to help her track down abortion medication, and that those friends texted her info on Aid Access, an international group that sends abortion pills through the mail. However, one of the friends then discovered they could obtain the meds right in Houston, per a text included in Silva's complaint, which demands more than $1 million in damages. He alleges a third woman then delivered the medication to his wife, who then managed a self-induced abortion at home. "Delete all conversations from today," one friend texted to his ex, per the suit. "You don't want him looking through it."

Silva's complaint isn't pursuing his ex, the mother of his two daughters, as Texas laws exempt the pregnant person from legal repercussions. His lawyers say he'll also sue the maker of the abortion medication used once that's discovered. The women haven't been criminally charged, and the Tribune notes that the law in this case is murky, as the pregnancy was terminated in July, and Texas' trigger law that makes abortion a crime punishable with a possible life sentence didn't go into effect until August. In a statement, Planned Parenthood Action Fund slams Silva's complaint as "infuriating and alarming," per Bloomberg Law. "This is the world politicians in Texas and across the country have created—one where people can face legal consequences simply for supporting someone's decisions about their own body," the group notes. (More abortion stories.)