A Texas man has been charged with capital murder after allegedly slipping an abortion drug into his pregnant girlfriend's drink without her knowledge, police say. Justin Anthony Banta, 38, was arrested on Friday following a monthslong probe into claims made by his ex-girlfriend, per the BBC. According to authorities, after Banta learned about the pregnancy last year, he offered to pay for an abortion, but his girlfriend chose to keep the baby.
Police say the woman met with Banta at a coffee shop when she was about six weeks pregnant, and after their meeting, she experienced heavy bleeding and later lost the pregnancy. She'd been told by her doctor that same day that the pregnancy was healthy, with the baby boasting "a strong heartbeat" and "good vital signs," Parker County Sheriff Russ Authier said in a statement, per CBS News. Authorities allege that Banta secretly added abortion-inducing pills—referred to as Plan C—to her drink.
Banta also faces a charge of tampering with physical evidence. Investigators say Banta, an IT worker at the US Department of Justice, deleted evidence from his mobile phone and remotely reset the device after turning it over to police, leading to additional charges. The case remains under active investigation by the Parker County Sheriff's Office. Banta's arrest comes amid strict abortion laws in Texas, which largely ban the procedure except in medical emergencies. Recent state laws impose both civil and criminal penalties for performing abortions and ban them after fetal cardiac activity is detected, with some exceptions. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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