Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune

Published

Almost two years ago, a Galveston man sued his ex-wife’s friends for wrongful death of a fetus for allegedly helping her obtain pills to terminate her pregnancy. The first-of-its-kind lawsuit set off a panic about a potential new avenue of abortion criminalization in post-Roe v. Wade America.

On Thursday, the claims were dropped with nothing to show for them.

This shocking test case was filed by Jonathan Mitchell, an anti-abortion legal crusader responsible for Texas’ novel ban on abortions through private lawsuits. That gambit, commonly known as SB 8, survived a court challenge. This wrongful death suit, which demanded $1 million from the two women for their “murderous actions,” did not.

Mitchell filed a notice of non-suit Thursday night asking the court to dismiss all of the claims and close the case, just as it was preparing to go to trial. The filing does not say why they dropped the claims, and Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The original lawsuit alleged that Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter helped their friend obtain abortion-inducing medication after she found out she was pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband Marcus Silva. The women countersued, alleging Silva knew about the abortion and did nothing to stop it.

Silva’s ex-wife, who was not a party to either lawsuit, previously asked the court to dismiss the claims or at least not require her to produce documents or testify. She introduced text messages that allegedly show Silva using the threat of the lawsuit to try to get back together.

“So now he’s saying if I don’t give him my ‘mind body and soul’ until the end of the divorce which he’s going to drag out, he’s going to make sure I go to jail for [getting the abortion],” she said in a text message to her friends.

The case was preparing to go to trial this month after several continuances. In a statement, Noyola said she was grateful it was dismissed, but “angry” that it had been brought in the first place.

“After two years of being entangled in Mitchell and Silva’s campaign of abusive litigation, we were ready to fight this baseless suit in court,” Carpenter said in a statement. “But the claims were dropped because they had nothing. We did nothing wrong, and we would do it all again. ”

This story will be updated.