A Texas woman was charged with murder for terminating her own child. The charges were dropped by the district attorney on Sunday.
Lizelle Herrera was 26 years old when she was arrested by police for allegedly violating the state’s restrictive abortion law.
Starr County District Attorney Gocha Alamrez said in a statement on Sunday that he had dismissed the charges ‘immediately’ and added that the matter was ‘not criminal.
Ramirez stated that ‘It’s clear to me, Ms. Herrera’s family has suffered from the events surrounding this indictment. This fact cannot be ignored.
“While the issues around this matter may be contentious, based on Texas law, and the facts presented it, it isn’t a criminal case.”
Texas Heartbeat Act was passed recently. Herrera was initially arrested and then charged. It bans abortions once a fetal beat is detected. This usually happens around six weeks before most women realize they’re pregnant.
Because the law has unusual enforcement provisions, it was intended to protect it against legal challenges. Anyone can file a lawsuit against any person who assists a woman with an abortion. This plaintiff may be eligible for up to 10,000 dollars.
Lizelle Herrera was 26 years old when she caused self-induced abortion to cause the death of a person.
Herrera was held in Starr County Jail while authorities investigated the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy. Herrera had a bond of $500,000
La Frontera Fund, a Texas-based abortion assistance fund, held a protest outside of the Starr County Jail on Saturday morning demanding Herrera’s release.
“This arrest is cruel and inhumane. Rockie Gonzalez (founder and chairperson of Frontera Fund), stated that Lizelle Herrera must be released immediately. It is claimed that Lizelle Herrera was at the hospital when she had a miscarriage. Staff from the hospital then reported the matter to the police.
While acknowledging that Herrera’s arrest was only preliminary at the time, the group also condemned the Texas Heartbeat Act.
Gonzalez said that while this story is in progress and doesn’t know everything about it, the fact that Texas criminalized pregnant women’s decisions or their pregnancy outcomes (which the state of Texas did), takes away individuals’ autonomy over their bodies and leaves them without any safe choices if they decide not to be parents.
Also, the activist argued that this bill was the most restrictive anti-abortion ban in the country. It prohibits abortion before women know they’re pregnant. It also deputizes private citizens to sue anyone who performs or ‘aids and abets’ an abortion.
Gonzalez said to the radio station, “We want people know that this kind of legislation affects low-income individuals of color the most when state legislatures place restrictions on our reproductive right,” Gonzalez added.
After its September enactment, the Texas Heartbeat Act received criticism from pro-choice organizations. Photo of Protesters Outside the U.S. Supreme Court, October 2013.
Despite all the critics, no legal challenge to the law has been successful
Following its September adoption, pro-choice groups voiced their disapproval at the bill.
However, all legal challenges that attempted to change the law were unsuccessful, which included a case filed to the U.S. Supreme Court December 2021, and to the Texas Supreme Court last Month.
Although the Texas law is in conflict with U.S. Supreme Court landmark rulings that prohibit states from banning abortions early in pregnancy, it has been written so that they are virtually outnumbered by those precedents.
Texas abortion providers are aware that the law may remain on the books in the future, as there is not much else.
After the country’s strictest ban on abortions, Texas saw an approximate 60 percent drop in abortions in September 2021.
According to data published February by Texas Health and Human Services Commission, abortions in Texas fell by 60% during the first 30 days of implementation of the new law.
Texas’s September report of nearly 2200 abortions was made possible by a new law. It bans any procedure that detects cardiac activity, typically around 6 weeks into pregnancy. There are no exceptions for cases of incest or rape.
There had been over 5,400 abortions in August. The abortion number was consistently higher than 4,250 for the first seven months 2021. According to Texas health officials, more information will be available on a monthly schedule.
Planned Parenthood stated at that time that they had seen a 1 082 percent increase in abortion requests from patients living in Texas zip codes compared with September 2019, 2020.
The organization stated that it was unconscionable that thousands upon thousands of Texans are still being forced to travel hundreds miles to Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado to obtain their fundamental right of safe, legal abortion.
Many other states have also copied the law.
Oklahoma House approved a bill that made performing abortion in Oklahoma a felony, with a maximum of 10 years jail time and $100,000 in fines. Protestors rallied at the capitol Tuesday against the bill
Idaho was the first state to pass legislation last month that was inspired by the Texas bill banning abortions within six weeks.
However, the Idaho Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked the law, meaning it won’t go into effect on April 22 as planned.
The Idaho bill also allowed the would-be father, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles of a ‘preborn child’ to each sue an abortion provider for a minimum of $20,000 in damages within four years after the abortion. However, the law does not allow for rapists or their relatives to bring a case against an abortion provider.
Since 2018, eleven states, including Idaho, have introduced heartbeat bills. These bills include bills from Georgia, Louisiana and Missouri as well as South Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and South Carolina. Most of these states are located in the Bible Belt, which is heavily anti-abortion.
The Oklahoma House approved a similar bill on Tuesday. It would have made abortion illegal and punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine of $100,000.
With little discussion and no debate, the Republican-controlled House voted 70-14 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has stated previously that he will sign every anti-abortion law brought to his desk.
The bill will take effect when the state Legislature adjourns this summer if Stitt signs it and the court does not block it.
Last year’s Senate bill made an exception for abortions that were performed to preserve the life and health of the mother. This was said by Jim Olsen of Roland who is a GOP state representative. The bill does not make any exceptions for incest or rape victims.
A doctor, or someone convicted of performing an abortive procedure would be sentenced to up to 10 year imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.
Olsen explained that women are not subject to the same penalties as doctors.
Future of Oklahoma’s bill depends on U.S. Supreme Court decisions expected in the summer about Mississippi’s abortion ban, which could reverse Roe v. Wade.