HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS — October 13, 2026 — A mother of two in Texas filed a lawsuit today against several members of the anti-abortion group Students for Life. The lawsuit alleges that activists associated with Students for Life violated HB 7, a Texas law that bans anyone from mailing, transporting, delivering, prescribing, or providing abortion pills to or within Texas, or intending to do so.

In March of this year, the group’s president and others associated with Students for Life boasted in a social media post in front of the Houston Space Center that they were ordering abortion pills to Texas “undercover.” What they intended to do with the pills is unclear—but HB 7’s vigilante-style enforcement mechanism allows any Texan to sue others for financial damages if they violate it.

The Texas mother of two, who is using the pseudonym Maria Puerto, is represented by Amplify Legal, the litigation arm of Abortion in America. Texas’ abortion bans forced Puerto to become a mother long before she was ready, and she now struggles to support her two young children while also caring for her ailing mother. She is now seeking damages equivalent to the cost of raising two children in Texas.

“I’ve filed a lawsuit against those who helped build these horrible laws—and then had the privilege to break them in an attempt to trap women like me who still need help,” Puerto writes in her personal essay HERE. “I want the people who did this—the politicians, the activists, all the people who say they care about Texas women and Texas families but who only act to make our lives impossible—I want them to know: You did this to me. To us.”

“Vigilante laws like HB7 make it more dangerous to be pregnant and give birth in Texas, and they hurt families like our client’s,” said Molly Duane, Litigation Director of Amplify Legal, who is representing Puerto. “If anyone were to benefit financially from these laws, it should be Maria Puerto.”

Read Puerto’s essay and watch her exclusive video in The Meteor HERE. The complaint can be found HERE. For press inquiries, please contact Amplify Legal at press@abortioninamerica.org.

More details:

• Texas’s HB 7 is a vigilante-style law that took effect at the end of 2025, aimed at terrifying and terrorizing Texans who need abortions. It prohibits manufacturing, ordering, or transporting abortion pills to or from any person in Texas, or intending to so, and says anyone who violates the law can be sued by anyone else for at least $100,000, with $10,000 going to the complainant personally and the remainder going to a charity of the complainant’s choosing.

• Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, multiple states including California and Massachusetts have passed laws that make it legal for licensed healthcare providers to prescribe and dispense abortion pills from their home states where abortion is legal to patients in ban states across the country, including in Texas. Abortion pills are a safe, effective, and commonly used way of ending a pregnancy and are the only remaining option for Texans who don’t have the ability to leave the state for abortion care.

• The Texas legislature passed HB 7 in the hopes of shutting down this option. Indeed, anti-abortion extremists and politicians have relentlessly sought to curtail the use of abortion pills at the state and federal level, including through recent lawsuits and debunked claims about their safety.

• Should Ms. Puerto succeed in this action against the individuals associated with Students for Life who tried to secure abortion pills this year, she will be entitled to the first $10,000 of the penalties with the remainder going to a charity of her choosing – Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit that helps young people in Texas navigate legal barriers to abortion and birth control.

Screenshot of Instagram story post from Kristan Hawkins, Presidents of Students for Life

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Maria Puerto is represented by Amplify Legal, the litigation arm of Abortion in America.

Abortion in America, a nonpartisan, non-profit project of Hopewell Fund, is a national effort to bring greater public attention and urgency to the toll abortion bans are taking on people’s health, lives, work, and families. Abortion in America is focused on documenting and sharing personal stories, supporting and organizing people who come forward to share their experiences, and creating change with organizing, strategic partnerships, and litigation through Amplify Legal. To learn more about Abortion in America, please visit abortioninamerica.org.