A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by voluntary abortion”, in a state with the most restrictive abortion laws in the US. .
It is unclear whether Lizelle Herrera was accused of having an abortion or if she helped someone else have an abortion.
Herrera was arrested Thursday and remains jailed Saturday with a $500,000 fine in the Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, police chief Carlos Delgado said in a statement. Father.
“Herrera was arrested and served on a murder charge after Herrera knowingly and intentionally caused the death of a person by voluntarily having an abortion,” Delgado said.
Delgado did not say under what law Herrera would be charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday as the case is still under investigation.
University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press that Texas law exempts her from murder for the crime of voluntary abortion.
“(Murder) does not apply to the murder of an unborn child if the alleged act is ‘act committed by the mother of that unborn child,'” Vladeck said.
A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas from pregnant women as early as six weeks has dramatically reduced the number of abortions in the state. The law allows private citizens to sue doctors or anyone who helps women get abortions.
The woman who receives an abortion is exempt from the law.
However, some states still have laws criminalizing self-induced abortions “and there have been a number of prosecutions here and there over the years,” Vladeck said.
“Performing abortions in Texas is murder, but when a medical provider does it, it can’t be prosecuted” due to US Supreme Court rulings upholding legality donation of abortion, Vladeck said.
Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women also noted the exemption under state law.
“It’s a bit of a mystery in this case, what was this woman accused of?” Paltrow said. “There is no statute in Texas, even in the face, that permits the arrest of a woman for self-administered abortion.”
Another Texas law forbids doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion pills after the seventh week of pregnancy and forbidding sending the drugs in the mail.
Medical abortions are not considered self-induced under federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, Vladeck said.
“You can only get the drug under medical supervision,” according to Vladeck. “I realize this sounds weird since you’re on your own, but it’s the least of the providers’ theoretical care.”
In the City of Rio Grande on Saturday, the Frontera Foundation, an abortion rights group, called for Herrera’s release.
“We still don’t know all the details surrounding this tragic event,” said Rockie Gonzales, founder and chairman of the board.
“What we do know is that the criminalization of pregnancy choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has implemented, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies and leaves them without the safe choice of not wanting to be a parent,” Gonzalez said.
Nancy Cárdenas Peña, Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy for the Latina National Institute for Reproductive Equity, said in a statement that abortions should be performed on a woman’s own terms when she feels most comfortable.
“Allowing criminal law to be used against those who have ended a pregnancy does not serve a reasonable purpose for the state, but could be very damaging to young people, those on low incomes. and communities of color, who are more likely to encounter or report Peña said.
