The Men Suing Over Their Partners' Abortions
The antiabortion movement has found an unlikely new ally to target abortion providers: husbands, boyfriends and exes.
Men have filed several recent lawsuits stemming from abortions obtained by their partners or ex-partners. The strategy is part of an effort by antiabortion lawyers to gain ground in their uphill battle to target mail-order abortion pills and interstate travel for the procedure. But it carries risks—putting dysfunctional relationships on display to advance a divisive claim that men are harmed when their intimate partners end pregnancies.
“They’re finding people who might have an ax to grind against their ex to try to end abortion access. These are not savory plaintiffs,” said Marc Hearron, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights who represented a Texas abortion-rights activist in one case where a man sued several people over his then-wife’s self-managed abortion. The cases, Hearron said, are based on “a wackadoo theory.”
(snip)
The cases principally flow from Texas, which allows a parent to sue for the wrongful death of an unborn child. Many of the suits have been spearheaded by Jonathan F. Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general who was the architect of a Texas law, known as SB 8, which allows private litigants to bring civil lawsuits to enforce a prohibition on performing or aiding abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
(snip)
Many of the cases are still in the early stages, so courts haven’t yet tested the plaintiffs’ legal or factual claims. Abortion opponents hope to use the lawsuits to pierce shield laws passed by blue states that protect providers and others within their borders who work with out-of-state patients residing in areas with abortion bans.
(snip)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has embraced similar tactics. In one case against a New York doctor, the Republican official alleges a 20-year-old woman in northern Texas became pregnant in May 2024 and didn’t tell the biological father about the pregnancy or that she had ordered abortion pills from Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter. When the woman began to hemorrhage, the father took her to the hospital and later discovered the pills, according to the filing.
More..
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/the-men-suing-over-their-partners-abortions-b2e7a9ce?st=xPv92m&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
free
= new reply since forum marked as read
