A recent Wall Street Journal report described a new legal development in the fight to protect unborn life: a number of fathers are filing lawsuits over abortions carried out without their knowledge or consent.
The suits claim harm from the loss of their children and seek accountability from those who facilitated the abortions, including doctors, family members, and abortion pill distributors, the Journal reported Aug. 26.
According to the outlet, many of these cases originate in Texas, where state law permits parents to sue for the wrongful death of an unborn child. Some lawsuits target out-of-state providers who mail abortion pills into states with pro-life protections, challenging shield laws in other states such as California and New York that protect those providers from liability.
One recent case involves Jerry Rodriguez of Houston, who alleged that his girlfriend’s mother and her estranged husband pressured her into taking abortion pills during two separate pregnancies — both of which, he says, she had wanted to carry. The pills were allegedly ordered from a California doctor. Rodriguez is seeking more than $1 million in damages and is asking a judge to bar the doctor from mailing additional abortion pills.
Another case outlined by the outlet involves a Texas man who discovered that his partner had ordered abortion pills from Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, a New York-based physician. According to court filings, the woman never informed the man of the pregnancy.
When she began to hemorrhage, he brought her to the hospital and later found the abortion drugs. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against the doctor and obtained a $100,000 default judgment — though New York authorities have refused to enforce it under their state’s laws.
The legal strategy reflects growing efforts by pro-life attorneys and advocates to affirm that fathers also have a stake in the lives of their unborn children.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told WSJ, “We’re starting to have fathers who feel that they can speak out and speak up for their rights and for the rights of the child.”
Several of the cases have been brought with the involvement of Jonathan F. Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general and author of the state’s SB 8 law. That legislation, known widely as the Texas Heartbeat Act, allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits against individuals who perform or assist with abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Texas Right to Life has also been active in supporting these cases. Its president, John Seago, told the Journal that the organization is working through pro-life networks, including crisis pregnancy centers, to identify individuals willing to come forward.
Seago told the outlet, “We have been trying to sound the alarm and recruit people to this fight.”
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Author: Rachel Quackenbush
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