In the ‘first-of-its-kind’ lawsuit since Roe Vs. Wade was overturned, three Texas women are being sued for advising a husband’s ex-wife for obtaining abortion medication. The plaintiff here is the woman’s ex-husband, and the unborn baby is considered the victim. But what makes this lawsuit interesting is that the main source of evidence are Facebook messages of these three friends helping the ex-wife obtain abortion medication.
Reported on March 10th by The Texas Tribune, wrote (excerpts):
A Texas man is suing three women under the wrongful death statute, alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in terminating her pregnancy, the first such case brought since the state’s near-total ban on abortion last summer.
Marcus Silva is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general and architect of the state’s prohibition on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. The lawsuit is filed in state court in Galveston County, where Silva lives.
Silva alleges that his now ex-wife learned she was pregnant in July 2022, the month after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and conspired with two friends to illegally obtain abortion-inducing medication and terminate the pregnancy.
The friends texted with the woman, sending her information about Aid Access, an international group that provides abortion-inducing medication through the mail, the lawsuit alleges. Text messages filed as part of the complaint seem to show they instead found a way to acquire the medication in Houston, where the two women lived.
A third woman delivered the medication, the lawsuit alleges, and text messages indicate that the wife self-managed an abortion at home.
The defendants could not immediately be reached for comment. Silva’s wife filed for divorce in May 2022, court records show, two months before the alleged abortion. The divorce was finalized in February. They share two daughters, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit relies heavily on screenshots from a group chat the ex-wife had with two friends seemingly seeking to help her terminate her pregnancy. Her friends expressed concern that Silva would “snake his way into your head.”
I know either way he will use it against me. If I told him before, which I’m not, he would use it as [a way to] try to stay with me. And after the fact, I know he will try to act like he has some right to the decision.
The pregnant woman said, according to text messages attached to the complaint.
Delete all conversations from today,” one of the women later told her. “You don’t want him looking through it.”
The lawsuit alleges that assisting a self-managed abortion qualifies as murder under state law, which would allow Silva to sue under the wrongful death statute. The women have not been criminally charged. Texas’ abortion laws specifically exempt the pregnant person from prosecution; the ex-wife is not named as a defendant.
Joanna Grossman, a law professor at SMU Dedman School of Law, said this lawsuit is “absurd and inflammatory.” Since the pregnant patient is protected from prosecution, there is no underlying cause of action to bring a wrongful death suit in a self-managed abortion, she said.
But this is going to cause such fear and chilling that it doesn’t matter whether [Mitchell] is right. Who is going to want to help a friend find an abortion if there is some chance that their text messages are going to end up in the news? And maybe they’re going to get sued, and maybe they’re going to get arrested, and it’s going to get dropped eventually, but in the meantime, they will have been terrified.
Grossman said.
In response to this, Ron Placone via Status Coup noted this is another indirect power grab by Big Brother to surveil people’s private messaging, and will set a dangerous precedent that social media messages can not only get you canceled online, but now could end you up in the courthouse and a jailcell.
He wrote in a post on his Substack:
In a post-Roe world this day was bound to happen, and in a world without proper E2EE (end-to-end encryption) on all messaging across social media, such a day is facilitated further.
To be clear, the lawsuit alleges that it is relying on screenshots of a group chat between the women. Also, one of the women at one point encourages the pregnant woman to “delete all conversations from today” because “You don’t want him looking through it.”
Such assertions imply that the ex-husband had access to the woman’s phone and messages, in which case, obviously, E2EE would not have made much of a difference, because the ex-husband had access to her device.
So, while E2EE might not have made a difference in this case (and we don’t know for sure, this is still unfolding), not having E2EE on all messages will make lawsuits like this one more commonplace. If this lawsuit is successful, it will make all messages more vulnerable. Lawyers and law enforcement will try to prod and hack more as such a thing would be considered valid evidence. Another side note: Facebook has made it very clear they will cooperate with law enforcement in the pursuit of anyone’s DMs.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Those who follow my work know that I am certainly against in abortion in all forms. However, what you are seeing here is another step towards a massive overreach of Big Brother and the surveillance state, if the court rules in favor of the husband.
Now, if the husband wins, this would set a terribly bad and draconian precedent. If Facebook messages are enough to incriminate you in this context, or any other platform, or texts, or emails; then anything you and I say that the state or federal government does not like, or even just a common citizen does not like, you can then be held liable in court and even be forced to pay fines and end up behind bars!
As I have said before, this “Ignite the Right” movement and sentiment, this “Great Awakening” and MAGA religion, is just a different coat of paint and a changing of the guard for the same globalist agendas, such as we see here; eventually leading towards are even more draconian censorship, and eventual social credit scores and internet behavioral scores that groups like the World Economic Forum are promoting.
SEE: The Great Reset Versus The Great Awakening: Fighting For The Same Team
[17] As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. [18] They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. Lamentations 4:17-18
SEE: The DQ Institute: The Social Credit Score To Become A Global Citizen To Use The Internet
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Will this maddness ever end?
This smells to high heaven of a planned lawsuit to ‘evolve’ the law, create division, & work toward their endgoal of total control. Like the Scopes trial, Roe v. Wade etc accomplished in the first place: even when they lost the case!…the propaganda & spin still moved the ball the way they wanted it moved at the time: toward death, more experimentation on how to use & control people, demoralization, genetics etc, & tighter & more-encompassing tyranny.
This has nothing to do with big brother. The husband took the screenshots, not the govt or facebook. This would be the same if it was 1950 and the husband intercepted a letter from a friend advising her where to get pills, etc. and then sued the friend that wrote the letter. I don’t see the big brother connection at all. And FYI, they already monitor FB, twitter, etc. so that ship sailed a long time ago.