Texas Woman Jailed for Self-Managed Abortion Can Sue Prosecutors for $1 Million

In 2022, Texas woman Lizelle Gonzalez (then Herrera) used abortion pills to try and self-manage an abortion 19 weeks into her pregnancy. In the face of complications, she sought help from a local hospital operated by Starr County. But hospital workers called the police on Gonzalez, and she was arrested, wrongfully charged with murder for taking the pills, and forced to spend two nights in jail despite breaking zero laws. On Wednesday, a court ruled that Gonzalez can sue prosecutors and the local sheriff for $1 million in damages.

At the time of Gonzalez’s arrest in April 2022, Texas’ S.B. 8 abortion ban had been in effect since September 2021. S.B. 8 is civilly enforced, meaning anyone could sue someone who provides or helps someone access abortion for a least $10,000. But the actual abortion patient isn’t liable, and further, there’s no criminal component to S.B. 8. But Texas’ criminal abortion ban, which threatens the provider but not the patient with life in prison, only took effect months after Gonzalez’s self-managed abortion, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez and the other defendants tried to argue this week that they’re immune from civil lawsuits because they didn’t know the law and accidentally jailed Gonzalez—a little “oopsie” of sorts. Ramirez, who paid a $1,250 fine and had his legal license suspended by the State Bar of Texas in February, previously told reporters he “made a mistake” in bringing forth the murder charge. An attorney for the defendants said their treatment of Gonzalez was “at worst negligence,” challenging Gonzalez’s attorneys to prove that prosecutors knew she wasn’t criminally liable under the state’s abortion laws in April 2022.

https://www.jezebel.com/texas-woman-jailed-for-self-managed-abortion-can-sue-prosecutors-for-1-million