Texas man settles lawsuit with women who helped his wife get abortion pills

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man who sued his ex-wife’s friends for helping her get an abortion has informed the court that the two sides have reached a settlement, waive the need for a trial this would have tested his argument that their actions amounted to assistance in a wrongful death.

Lawyers for Marcus Silva and the three women he sued last year filed court papers this week saying they had reached a settlement. As of Friday, the judge had not yet signed the settlement. Court records did not include terms, but a spokesperson for the defendants said the settlement did not involve any financial conditions.

“While we are grateful that this fraudulent case is finally over, we are angry at ourselves and others who were terrorized for simply supporting a friend who was being abused,” said Jackie Noyola, l ‘one of the women, in a press release. . “No one should ever have to fear punishment, criminalization or a lengthy legal battle for helping someone they care about. »

Abortion rights advocates feared the case could open new avenues of legal action against people who help women have abortions and create a chilling effect in Texas and across the country.

Silva filed a petition last year to sue friends of his ex-wife, Brittni Silva, for providing her with abortion pills. He claimed their assistance amounted to aiding murder and sought $1 million in damages, according to court documents.

Two of the defendants, Noyola and Amy Carpenter, sued Silva for invasion of privacy. They dropped their counterclaims Thursday evening after reaching a settlement.

“This case was about using the legal system to harass us for helping our friend and to scare others into doing the same,” Carpenter said. “But the claims were dropped because they had nothing. We didn’t do anything wrong and we would do it again.

Brittni and Marcus Silva divorced in February 2023, weeks before Silva filed suit. The defendants alleged in their countersuit that Silva was a “serial emotional abuser” seeking revenge and that he illegally searched Brittni’s phone without her consent.

Silva was represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a former Texas solicitor general who helped draft a strict abortion law in Texas known as Senate Bill 8 before the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Mitchell declined to comment Friday.

Brittni Silva took the drug in July 2022, according to court documents. This was a few weeks after the Supreme Court allowed states to ban abortion. The lawsuit claimed that text messages were shared between the defendants discussing how to obtain the abortion medications.

Earlier this year, an appeals court blocked an attempt by Silva’s attorney to gather information from his ex-wife in the wrongful death lawsuit against his friends. The decision was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court, which criticized Silva in the footnotes of a concurring opinion signed by two of its conservative justices, Jimmy Blacklock and Phillip Devine.

“He engaged in shamefully vicious acts of harassment and intimidation against his ex-wife,” the notice states. “I can imagine no legitimate excuse for Marcus’s behavior as reflected in this filing, many of the details of which are not suitable for reproduction in a judicial opinion.”

Abortion is a key issue this campaign season and is the number one priority for women under 30according to the results of the KFF survey.

Thirteen states ban abortions at all stages of pregnancy, including Texas, which has some of the strictest restrictions in the country. Nine states have electoral measures to protect the right to abortion during these elections.

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Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover under-reported issues.