Texas Man Drops Landmark Abortion Lawsuit Days Before Trial

A Texas man has dropped a lawsuit against three women who helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills, just days before the trial was set to commence. This marks the end of a key test case for the private enforcement of state abortion bans.

Galveston County resident Marcus Silva sued three friends of his ex-wife Brittni under wrongful death claims in March 2023, the first such case under Texas' near-total abortion ban. Although the abortion occurred in July 2022, before the state's "trigger law" took effect, the lawsuit alleged that the women violated a state law prohibiting non-physicians from administering abortion pills.

The trigger law, which banned all abortions after fertilization, was enacted in late August 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade.

Prominent anti-abortion attorney Jonathan Mitchell and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, filed the original complaint on Silva's behalf. Silva alleged that the women "conspired with Brittni to obtain abortion pills illegally and to use those illegally obtained abortion pills to murder baby Silva." The Silvas were still married at the time of the abortion, according to the complaint.

The defendants described Marcus Silva as a "serial emotional abuser" and accused him of using evidence of the abortion to blackmail his then-wife. Silva reportedly began to suspect the abortion after searching his wife's purse and phone, reading her texts, and finding a metformin pill in her purse, as per a League City Police Department note cited in legal filings.

"He wasn’t interested in stopping her from terminating a possible pregnancy," the defendants' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, wrote in the response. "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." The response cited text messages in which Brittni told friends that Silva was threatening to have her jailed if she did not give herself to him “mind body and soul.”

Both parties filed notices late Thursday night asking the judge to dismiss the case, with each side agreeing to pay their own attorney's fees.

The request for dismissal comes after Republican state District Judge Lonnie Cox denied Mitchell's motion to delay the trial, which was set to begin Monday in Galveston County court. The trial date had previously been moved from May to October. Cox also rejected Mitchell's motion to compel compliance with discovery on Oct. 7.

Silva and Mitchell had attempted to compel Silva's ex-wife to furnish further evidence in the case but were unable to after she invoked her right against self-incrimination, according to court filings. The 14th Court of Appeals ruled in Brittni Silva's favor, and the Texas Supreme Court denied Mitchell's petition to reverse the lower court's ruling.

Under state law, pregnant Texans who obtain abortions cannot be prosecuted or sued for the terminations, though accomplices or those who perform the procedures, including physicians, can face criminal and civil penalties.

The American-Statesman reached out to Mitchell and Hardin for comment but did not immediately receive a response.