2 years ago
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — A Texas district attorney said Sunday that he will ask a judge to dismiss a murder charge against a woman who allegedly gave herself an abortion.
Lizelle Herrera was arrested Thursday in Rio Grande City, a community of about 14,000 people along the Mexico border, after a Starr County grand jury indicted her on March 30 for murder for causing the death of a fetus or embryo through a self-induced abortion.
District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez said Sunday that his office would move to dismiss the charge Monday.
“In reviewing this case, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” Ramirez said in a statement.
Herrera has been jailed on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement Saturday.
“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” Delgado said.
A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.
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