In March, Kristan Hawkins, president and founder of the anti-abortion group Students for Life, posted a photo on Instagram showing herself and two colleagues outside Space Center Houston, captioned with a message about ordering abortion pills undercover. This public statement has led to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a Texas woman under a state law the group had supported in passing.
The legal action, brought by a 26-year-old woman using the pseudonym Maria Puerto, targets Hawkins and three other members of Students for Life: Lydia Taylor Davis, Jamie Curry, and Megan Roos. The suit invokes Texas House Bill 7, known as the Woman and Child Protection Act, which took effect last December. The law permits nearly anyone to sue individuals who mail, deliver, prescribe, or provide abortion pills within Texas or intend to do so, with a minimum penalty of $100,000 per violation. Notably, the law excludes lawsuits against women who use or attempt to obtain abortion pills for their own pregnancies.
Maria Puerto, represented by Amplify Legal — the litigation faction of the abortion rights group Abortion in America — argues that the defendants did not appear pregnant and thus fall under the law’s provisions. She is seeking $459,782, citing this as the estimated average cost of raising two children to adulthood in Texas. Under the statute, plaintiffs who are not the pregnant woman or her close relatives can retain $10,000 of any awarded damages, with the remainder held in trust for a charity of the plaintiff’s choosing. Puerto has indicated she intends to designate Jane’s Due Process, an organization supporting minors navigating Texas’ abortion restrictions.
Puerto stated she had no personal connection to the defendants or anyone affiliated with Students for Life. Her lawyer, Molly Duane, also the litigation director at Amplify Legal, criticized the anti-abortion activists for publicly acknowledging their alleged lawbreaking. “They bragged publicly about violating a law that they themselves had worked really hard to get passed,” Duane said, emphasizing the perceived contradiction in their actions.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants attempted to order abortion pills via smartphone and questions their motives and the truthfulness of their claims in doing so. It contends that the Instagram post was primarily a publicity stunt intended to intimidate healthcare providers offering telemedicine abortion services in Texas. The suit also highlights that Students for Life and its political arm have openly supported anti-abortion legislation not only in Texas but in multiple states.
Puerto, a South Texas resident, became pregnant in 2022 while using birth control pills after Texas had imposed near-total abortion bans. Unable to travel out of state and caring for an ill mother at home, she carried the pregnancy to term. The pregnancy and resulting challenges, such as severe morning sickness, caused her to lose a university scholarship and her job at a convenience store, according to the lawsuit. She later experienced a second pregnancy in 2024, and she now shares a small living space with her two children and her mother.
Reflecting on her experience, Puerto expressed frustration with the lawmakers behind the abortion restrictions but said the policies ultimately strengthened her resolve. “They knocked me down,” she said, “but they didn’t know that I was going to get back up stronger.”
The defendants have not publicly responded to the lawsuit.