Last week, Jonathan Mitchell, architect of the Texas Heartbeat Act, filed a civil wrongful-death lawsuit in Texas state court that threatens massive liability for manufacturers of abortion pills.
According to the first sentence of the complaint, “Under the law of Texas, a person who assists a woman in obtaining a self-managed abortion has committed the crime of murder and can be sued for wrongful death.” Mitchell filed the lawsuit on behalf of Marcus A. Silva, the father of an unborn child killed with illegal obtained abortion pills. The complaint charges that the three individuals currently named as defendants—Jackie Noyola, Amy Carpenter, and Aracely Garcia—helped Silva’s wife kill their child.
More importantly, Mitchell promises in the complaint that the manufacturer of the abortion pills that Mrs. Silva used “will be added as a defendant once identified in discovery.” The complaint seeks damages “in an amount over $1,000,000” as well as “an injunction that restrains each of the defendants from distributing abortion pills or assisting in illegal self-managed abortions in Texas.”