Texas Mother Sues Students for Life Members for $459,782 Using the Abortion Pill Law the Group Championed

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The suit was filed Oct. 13 in a Harris County district court. Students for Life’s president has called it frivolous.

The case turns the law around. Students for Life lobbied heavily for House Bill 7, which lets private citizens sue people who provide abortion pills in Texas. Now a woman who supports abortion access is using the same law against the group’s own members.

Because HB 7 is enforced by private lawsuits rather than by the state, how judges read it will help decide who can be sued, for what conduct, and for how much.

The plaintiff is a 26-year-old woman who uses the pseudonym Maria Puerto. She alleges that the four defendants ordered abortion medication in March outside Space Center Houston. The suit cites a now-expired social media post that read, “Guess what we are doing? Ordering abortion pills undercover? Yep. Stay tuned.”

The defendants are Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, Lydia Taylor Davis, Jamie Curry, and Megan Roos. None of them was pregnant at the time, according to the suit. The lawsuit does not say whether the pills were taken. Puerto and her lawyer hope the case will reveal what the defendants did with the medication after ordering it.

Puerto is seeking $459,782, which the suit describes as the average cost of raising two children from birth to 18 in Texas. She says both of her pregnancies were unplanned and happened despite birth control. She says the state’s abortion ban and the cost of traveling out of state kept her from ending them, and that her first pregnancy forced her to quit college and cost her a job.

These are allegations in a newly filed lawsuit. No court has ruled on whether the defendants violated HB 7.

Texas lawmakers passed HB 7 during a special session in 2025. The House approved it 82-48 and the Senate 17-8, Bloomberg Law reported. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill, and it took effect Dec. 4, 2025.

The law bans providing an abortion-inducing drug to or from anyone in Texas. Almost anyone can sue, even without a personal connection to the case. Plaintiffs can ask a court to stop the conduct and seek at least $100,000 in damages. A plaintiff with no connection to the pregnancy keeps $10,000, and the rest goes to a charity or nonprofit of their choice.

Pregnant women who seek or take abortion pills for themselves cannot be sued under HB 7, and the law does not apply to medical emergencies. It also shields licensed physicians and hospitals, according to the Tribune’s explainer on the law.

HB 7 does not explicitly ban ordering abortion pills, but it does ban transporting them within the state. Puerto’s attorney argues that this is what the defendants did. The law builds on Senate Bill 8, the 2021 Texas abortion ban that also relies on private lawsuits and sets damages of at least $10,000 per abortion.

If Puerto wins, she plans to keep $10,000 and give the rest to Jane’s Due Process, a Texas nonprofit that helps young people get abortion care and birth control.

Molly Duane, an attorney with Amplify Legal, represents Puerto. “By the plain language of the statute, this would seem to be a violation,” she told the Tribune. “This is the problem with writing such a confusing and vague law.”

Duane also said, “Texas is a strange place filled with vigilante statutes, vigilante laws that seek to turn Texans against each other.”

Hawkins called the lawsuit “frivolous” and a “publicity stunt” in a video posted on X, and she urged Texas Child Protective Services to investigate Puerto. Students for Life Vice President Kristi Hamrick called the suit a “backhanded compliment” and said the group will fight it in court.

When HB 7 passed, its author, Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, said it aims “to stop those who are selling, distributing and aiding the trafficking” of abortion medication into Texas. Democratic state Sen. Carol Alvarado opposed it, saying the bill “deputizes Texans as bounty hunters.”

At least two other HB 7 suits have been filed, and both target out-of-state abortion providers. In one, a Texas man and his daughter sued Remy Coeytaux, a California abortion provider, alleging he supplied pills used to end the man’s girlfriend’s pregnancy twice. In another, a woman alleges that the group Abortion Access supplied pills to a man who used them to end her pregnancy without her consent. Together, these cases will test how broadly courts read the law.

During debate over the bill, the Texas Medical Association warned that it could have a chilling effect on doctors’ care decisions. Lawmakers added an exemption for physicians and hospitals after medical groups raised concerns.

Anyone who is pregnant or was recently pregnant should get medical care right away for warning signs such as vaginal bleeding heavier than spotting, a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, severe or worsening belly pain, or fainting, according to the CDC’s list of urgent maternal warning signs. People with legal questions about HB 7 should talk with a licensed Texas attorney.

A Texas mother is suing four Students for Life members under HB 7. She alleges they ordered abortion pills outside Space Center Houston in March, and her lawyer argues that transporting the pills within Texas violates the law.

The suit says that figure is the average cost of raising two children from birth to 18 in Texas.

HB 7 bans providing abortion-inducing drugs to or from anyone in Texas and lets almost anyone sue for at least $100,000. Plaintiffs with no connection to the pregnancy keep $10,000, and the rest goes to charity.

Students for Life leaders called the lawsuit frivolous and a publicity stunt and said they will fight it in court.

No. Pregnant women who seek or take abortion pills for themselves cannot be sued under the law.

No. The case was filed on Oct. 13, and no court has decided whether the defendants violated the law.