The pro-life movement is taking a new turn, as some men, husbands, boyfriends, and exes, step forward to challenge abortion providers in court. Recent lawsuits argue that fathers suffer genuine harm when their unborn children are aborted, opening a new legal and moral front in the defense of life.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “men have filed several recent lawsuits stemming from abortions obtained by their partners or ex-partners,” with lawyers testing whether fathers may have legal standing to sue abortion providers, family members, or others who help terminate a pregnancy. Many of these cases have emerged from Texas, where state law permits parents to file wrongful death claims for the loss of an unborn child.
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A New Voice for Fathers
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, welcomed this development, saying: “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” (Wall Street Journal). This reflects a growing recognition of fatherhood as a God-given responsibility, not simply a peripheral role. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that parents, both mother and father, are “cooperators in the work of the Creator” (CCC 372).
One such father, Jerry Rodriguez of Houston, filed lawsuits alleging that his girlfriend’s estranged husband and her mother pressured her to take abortion pills ordered online from a California doctor. He says she “was happy to be pregnant by him both times” and is now pregnant again. Rodriguez is not only seeking damages but also asking a judge to stop abortion pills from being mailed into Texas (Wall Street Journal).
Piercing the Shield of Abortion
For abortion advocates, these cases are troubling. One lawyer dismissed them as being based on “a wackadoo theory” (Wall Street Journal). Yet abortion opponents see them as a legitimate way to pierce through “shield laws” in blue states that attempt to protect abortion providers from accountability when they ship abortion drugs into states with bans.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has adopted similar strategies. In one case, his office sued a New York doctor after a young woman secretly ordered abortion pills. A Texas court issued a $100,000 default judgment against the doctor—though New York officials have refused to enforce it, citing their state’s shield laws (Wall Street Journal).
The Human Cost
The lawsuits are not just about legal theory. They reveal brokenness and conflict within families. As the Wall Street Journal reports, abortion-rights activists acknowledge that being sued in these cases has been “confusing and scary.” But at the heart of these cases are unborn children whose lives were ended. For Catholics, that is the deepest wound of all.
The Church teaches that life begins at conception and that abortion is a “grave moral disorder” (CCC 2271). Yet it also teaches the healing power of mercy for those who have been wounded by abortion—men and women alike. As more fathers come forward to defend their children, Catholics can see in their voices a reminder that abortion is never a private matter. Every abortion leaves ripples of pain in families, and every abortion silences a life created in God’s image.
A Turning Point?
State lawmakers in Texas are now considering going further—proposing legislation that would allow private citizens, even those not connected to the case, to sue abortion providers for at least $100,000 when they mail abortion pills into the state (Wall Street Journal).
The pro-life movement has long emphasized that mothers are often pressured into abortion by boyfriends, family members, or outside forces. These lawsuits underscore another truth: that fathers, too, suffer the loss of their children and have a duty to defend them.
As Catholics reflect on this development, we are reminded that the defense of life is not only a battle fought in the political arena but also in the family. Every father has a vocation to protect his children, born and unborn. And when men take that responsibility seriously, they become witnesses to a culture of life.
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