A Texas man is suing three women he claims helped his ex-wife use the abortion pill to end her pregnancy without his knowledge. The ex-husband Marcus Silva is suing under Texas’s wrongful death statute, arguing that a person who helps a pregnant woman obtain a self-managed abortion has committed murder and thus is liable for wrongful death. Now Silva’s first-of-its-kind lawsuit, it comes the same week that five women in Texas sued the state because of its vague abortion ban that put them in danger because their doctors were too scared to render necessary care. 

At bottom, Silva’s lawsuit appears to be aimed at achieving the very same thing that Texas’ vague abortion ban does. That is, the suit seeks to scare people into not helping women end their pregnancies. Since the U.S. Supreme Court went ahead and rolled back Roe v. Wade back in June of last year, we’ve seen the patriarchy emerge from every crevice and corner of our country looking to craft laws that punish women into forced childbirth, even knowing the dangers. 

According to a report conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, among 11 developed countries the United States spends the highest percentage of its GDP on health care, yet has the highest maternal mortality rate, a relative undersupply of maternity care providers, and it remains the only country not to guarantee access to provider home visits or paid parental leave post-baby. In fact, since 2000, the U.S. has seen an increase in maternal deaths, despite two-thirds of those deaths being deemed completely and totally preventable. Our nation unnecessarily kills pregnant women at rates that are far higher than any of the other 10 high-income countries that we consider to be peers. Given that knowledge, combined with the fact that … costs are constantly rising but wages are not, it only makes sense for women to not wish to procreate. If it’s not a potential death sentence, it’s damn sure recipe for poverty. 

And our leadership is doing nothing to help ameliorate some of those very real and very life-threatening concerns people have about childbirth. Rather, the patriarchy in power in these red states like Texas are instead looking to push pregnancy onto people and to create avenues by which we are punished for opting out of the maternal mortality roulette. This novel wrongful death Texas lawsuit is just a byproduct of that. It’s all rooted in the belief that men have a right to dictate what a woman does with her body. Because what, up until the 70s, that was always the running narrative here in the United States. And it’s really how our nation did business. 

We denied women bodily autonomy, which is basically a concept that lies at the core part of humanity. So controlling a woman in that regard, is just simply another way to … deny her her full humanity as a human being. And if these politicians actually cared about human beings, well then they would ensure that we had universal health care, they’d mandate parental leave that was paid. They’d also actually pass laws that look out for we the people. Instead, they look for ways to bolster the patriarchy to the detriment of the people, including to the detriment of our economy, growth and stability. 

The attorney that crafted Silva’s wrongful death argument, well, he also happens to be the architect of the Texas Heartbeat Act. That’s that law that empowers private citizens to go ahead and sue those who facilitate abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. This is not about human life; never has been. This is about control over women. And fortunately, Silva doesn’t get to sue his ex-wife for allegedly ending her pregnancy. But by suing these three women he claims helped her, both he and his attorney get to get their control on, injecting fear into those who have the audacity to help women exercise bodily autonomy because that’s what this is really about, right? Silva’s suit is as audacious as they come and whether he wins or loses, there will be more lawsuits like it to come. So long as the Texas Legislature puts the patriarchy before it puts the people, there will always be men looking to deny women their full humanity.