They Survived a 2-Year Legal Harassment Campaign for Helping Their Friend Have an Abortion

Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter learned their friend's abusive ex dropped the suit on Thursday. “We’re excited for the win, but mad, too—through these stressful 19 months, the silver lining was we’d have our day in court," Carpenter told Jezebel.

By Kylie Cheung  |  October 11, 2024 | 4:48pm
Photo: Getty Images Abortion
They Survived a 2-Year Legal Harassment Campaign for Helping Their Friend Have an Abortion

On Thursday night, Texas residents Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter breathed a sigh of relief. After nearly two years of being the target of a legal harassment campaign for helping their friend self-manage an abortion and exit an abusive relationship, their saga finally came to an end. Their friend’s ex, who sued Noyola and Carpenter alleging wrongful death and conspiracy, dropped the lawsuit, just as it was about to go to trial this month.

“We’re excited for the win, but mad, too—through these stressful 19 months, the silver lining was we’d have our day in court, everyone will know the facts and our real story, so it’s frustrating that’s just taken away,” Carpenter told Jezebel. “It’s frustrating that bullying, harassment, all of that can be brought to you, then your chance to tell your story is taken, too.” Similarly, Noyola says she’s “grateful” for this outcome, but it’s complicated by her anger that their friend’s ex “now walks away with no consequences” for what he put them through.

In March 2023, within months of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling, we faced a terrifying first: A Texas man named Marcus Silva, aided by the notoriously underhanded anti-abortion attorney Jonathan Mitchell, filed a “wrongful death” lawsuit against three women (who include Carpenter and Noyola), claiming they helped his ex-wife have an abortion in July 2022 “without [his] knowledge or consent.” The suit argued abortion is murder; it didn’t directly invoke Texas’ abortion laws, but it reflects the model of Texas’ SB 8, which opens the door for people to sue anyone who allegedly helped someone have an abortion for at least $10,000. Silva and Mitchell sought $1 million in damages. 

Confusion about abortion laws (which are, indeed, very confusing) has become a uniquely terrifying tool at the disposal of abusive partners: In June 2024, the National Domestic Violence Hotline published a survey on reproductive coercion showing that since Dobbs, 5% of over 3,000 survey respondents (close to 200 people) said abusive partners threatened to report them to police or other authorities for considering having an abortion. Another 5% said abusive partners threatened to sue or take them to court if they sought abortion. In 2023, the Hotline reported a 99% surge in calls about reproductive coercion in the first year after Dobbs. 

“This case was about using the legal system to harass us for helping our friend, and scare others out of doing the same,” Carpenter said. “The claims were only dropped because they had nothing. We did nothing wrong, and we would do it all again.”

Noyola and Carpenter counter-sued Silva in May 2023. Their countersuit called Silva a “serial emotional abuser” who “had spent years verbally attacking [his then-wife], seeking to manipulate and control” her. Silva “did not file this lawsuit because he is interested in ‘protecting life.’ Instead, he wanted to control a life, [his ex’s],” the women’s suit said. Attorneys for Silva’s ex-wife later said in an October 2023 court filing that his suit was just “the latest abusive tactic in a long line of steps he has taken to harass and control” her, alleging he’d previously threatened to post a video of them having sex on Pornhub and threatened her with years-long litigation harassment if she didn’t continue a sexual relationship with Silva after the divorce, which was finalized in February 2023.

Noyola and Carpenter’s countersuit also includes texts between themselves and Silva’s ex-wife, recounting how he threatened to get her thrown in jail for having an abortion, if “I don’t give him my ‘mind, body and soul’ until the end of the divorce, which he’s going to drag out.” She continued, “So now that’s being held over my head … If I don’t do what he wants I know he will do that shit.”

Noyola and Carpenter dropped their countersuit as part of an agreement with Silva and Mitchell—not because they wanted to, but because it’s what’s best for them and their loved ones, they told Jezebel.

Both women say they walk away from the last 19 months bearing witness to how abortion bans and the broader legal system empower abusers and disempower victims, by design: “It’s insane to us the state of Texas is just colluding with abusers by banning abortions, honestly promoting bounty hunting laws,” Noyola said. She recalls that the beginning of the lawsuit was hardest and “very scary,” noting “That’s what lawsuits like this are meant to do—scare you.” But “the longer it went, the stronger we felt that we shouldn’t be scared because somebody like [him] shouldn’t be winning.”

As Carpenter sees it, Texas’ abortion laws are meant to help “someone like him—we all know the type, right?—destroy a victim’s support system in this big bold way.” For months, Carpenter and Noyola had to speak to each other and one of their closest friends through attorneys, fearing legal repercussions.

Farah Diaz-Tello, senior legal counsel at the reproductive justice organization If/When/How, tells Jezebel that Mitchell and the anti-abortion movement wield disinformation—for example, confusion about what is and isn’t criminal under abortion bans—to intimidate abortion seekers and their support systems. “[Silva’s lawsuit] was meant to send a message, to have a chilling effect,” she said. “Isolation is a common tactic of abusers—and that’s what the state is doing.”

In March, Mitchell helped another Texas man file a legal complaint to try to depose his ex-partner for allegedly traveling out-of-state for abortion. The petition claims the alleged abortion amounted to wrongful death under Texas state law, and also cites SB 8. The man says he intends to identify who helped his ex-partner have an abortion, her abortion provider, and sue all of them, as well as his ex. Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights, an attorney for the woman, told Jezebel at the time that Mitchell was “behind multiple attempts by hostile, and in some cases abusive, ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands, to take legal action against women who allegedly obtained abortions.” 

The Texas Tribune reported in May that Mitchell had filed nine such legal petitions targeting people over abortions, primarily against providers and advocates. But in at least one other case, Mitchell was representing another Texas man, also attempting to sue his ex-partner for her alleged abortion. In a filing obtained by the Tribune, that woman’s lawyers said Mitchell’s strategy endangers women everywhere. If judges listen to him, Mitchell “would be entitled to depose and seek documents from any woman who is not now pregnant, but was rumored to be at some time.” The attorneys argued that “any woman who has a miscarriage could be subject to a forced interrogation,” and “any scorned lover could harass or intimidate their ex … for simply receiving a false-positive pregnancy test.”

Since Dobbs, we’ve seen a range of tactics to not just enforce abortion bans but coerce and entrap people under state abortion bans—for example, legal harassment from an ex-partner over an abortion. Duane told Jezebel in May that this mirrors the actions of abusive partners who try to similarly entrap their victims: “It’s all about fear, chaos, cruelty in the extreme.” 

That’s a strategy Mitchell seems to be piloting. 

“While we are grateful this fraudulent case is finally over, we are angry for ourselves and others who have been terrorized for the simple act of supporting a friend who is facing abuse. No one should ever have to fear punishment, criminalization, or a lengthy court battle for helping someone they care about,” Noyola said. Her hope is that despite Mitchell and Silva’s attempt to make an example of her, Carpenter, and their friend, people “will still want to keep helping each other and not be afraid.”

If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence and seeking options to safely access abortion care, you can get support from If/When/How’s Repro Legal Helpline here or call 844-868-2812. 

 
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