Spouses and boyfriends are coordinating with anti-abortion groups to go after the women in their lives who may have terminated a pregnancy. Now, those same groups are running ads to encourage men to turn in more women.
One such case in Texas is being litigated against a New York clinic that mailed an abortion drug to a woman in the state. The boyfriend then found the drug and turned her in to law enforcement. That story has inspired one group in Texas to search for more men eager to strike out on their former or former partners by launching Facebook and X ads, reported The Washington Post.
One anti-abortion group in Texas has already found several men who want to join up as plaintiffs against the women in their lives.
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“The strategy right now is to tell dads that if you’re the father of a child victim of an abortion, you have legal rights, there may be a way to hold these people accountable,” said John Seago, the group's president.
Despite the abortion bans that have been passed in red states around the country, women have been able to access drugs through the mail, which, for now, are still legal abortions. That could change with a newly rebooted lawsuit that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled didn't have standing previously.
The Texas laws are incentivizing these men to come forward by offering to pay them $10,000 and attorney fees from the women they turned in.
“Historically, fathers didn’t have legal standing. They were shut out of the whole thing, because [the law said], ‘It’s a woman’s right to choose,’” Seago said.
Legal expert Madiba K. Dennie, who is the deputy editor at the legal commentary website "Balls and Strikes," called the advertisement plan from the anti-abortion groups "advertisements for domestic abuse."
"Conservative activist lawyers don't think women should be able to decide whether to get or stay pregnant, which makes them natural allies of men who want to control their partners," she said about the lawsuits.