If indecency had a face, it would be hers. On Thursday, March 9, 2023, a Texan filed a complaint against his ex-wife’s friends for ” conspiracy and manslaughter “. A month after the finalization of the divorce, the man accuses the three women of helping his wife obtain a medical abortion following an unwanted pregnancy.
An abject legislation that is favorable to him
For his complaint, filed before civil and non-criminal judges, Marcus Silva appealed to the laws of Texas, in force since last June, the date of the repeal of Roe c. Wade who allowed Texas to tighten its abortion policy. Like our colleagues from the Parisianthe texts predict from last summer that “ anyone assisting a woman with an abortion can be prosecuted for murder under Texas law. »
Not surprisingly, Marcus Silva is represented by a local Republican elected official, Briscoe Cain, known for his extremely hostile positions on the subject, and by the conservative lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, who is behind the recent law that undermines this fundamental right in Texas.
The latter made a lunar reasoning: according to them, it was last July that Silva ” learned of the defendant’s involvement in the murder of his son “. As a ” trial “, screenshots in which we would see his ex-wife sharing her anguish with her friends after finding out she was pregnant. She would also explain her dismay at Texas laws that prevent her from having an abortion:
After looking for ways to travel to a state where abortions are still practiced, two of the women explain to her friend how to get abortion pills, the third offers to pick her up from her home after taking the pills, which she says according to Silva’s lawyers, it is equivalent to allowing the woman “to use her home for the murder”. The lawyers also denounce the message in which the group of friends was advised to cancel the conversations to prevent Marcus Silva from “scrutinizing”; it is, according to them, evidence that the accused tried to “destroy the evidence of their crimes”. As for the disguises they chose for Halloween three months later, the clothes of the “Scarlet Handmaiden” from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, represented the “celebration” of the “murder” they had committed.
Le Parisien, “United States: a Texan sues his ex-wife’s friends for helping her have an abortion”, March 12, 2023
A purely political approach?
Thankfully, this complaint comes at a time when abortion pills are at the center of the abortion access debate in the United States. In fact, 54% of abortions performed in the country are currently medical. Marcus Silva has expressed his intention to file charges against the laboratory that devised the pill and claims ” nominal, compensatory and punitive damages in the amount of $1 million against each of his ex-wife’s friends.
A non-trivial maneuver. Last November, a group called ” Hippocratic Medicine Alliance it has already lodged a complaint against the Food and Drug Administration, which in September 2000 approved the marketing of mifepristone, a synthetic steroid frequently used as an abortifacient in early pregnancy. Since January 2023, these pills have also been available on prescription in pharmacies.
Represented by seven attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom (an Arizona-based religious right-wing nonprofit), the group accuses the FDA of botching the approval process. If the judge (a sympathizer of the conservative case) were to agree with them, mifepristone would be banned throughout the country, until the US drug agency reviews the entire procedure. His decision, expected since February 24, could very well be a new blow to American abortion rights.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
