A 26-year-old woman in Texas was finally released from prison on Saturday after she was arrested and charged with murder in what authorities call a “self-induced abortion.”
Liesel Herrera was arrested Thursday and sentenced to two nights in prison after officers complained of “intentional and deliberate[d] Individual death “With self-induced abortion,” said a spokesman for the Starr County Sheriff’s Office.
No details of the “abortion” or fetus were provided.
On Sunday, Starr Gocha District Attorney Alain Ramirez told public radio in Texas that he had filed a motion to stop the murder cases against Herrera. Ramirez said the case is not a criminal offense under state law, according to the TPR.
Herrera was released on $ 500,000 bail and is retaining a legal counsel, the statement said. La Frontera Foundation The Rio Grande Valley -based Abortion Relief Fund held a protest Saturday morning outside the Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City.
New !!! Liesel was released on bail and sought legal counsel. With his family’s permission, the Frontera Fund launched the Legal Protection and Reconciliation Fund to support Liesel and his family.
Donate here ➡️ https://t.co/BgqPHA4NON# Justice 4 Liesel– Fondo Frontera (@FondoLaFrontera) April 9, 2022
Rocky Gonzalez, founder and president of Frontera, called the arrest “inhumane”.
“The Criminalization of Pregnancy Options or Pregnancy Results of the State of Texas; It takes away people’s autonomy over their bodies “It doesn’t leave them a safe option when they choose not to be parents,” Gonzalez said Friday, according to Texas Public Radio.
Stephen Vladek, a law professor at the University of Texas, told The Associated Press Texas that Texas law does not include Herrera’s murder case for terminating her own pregnancy, so it’s hard to understand how she could be charged with miscarriage. murder. self-inflicted.
The arrest is another horrific assault on women in Texas and a disturbing challenge to the invulnerability of their own bodies.
This was followed last year by the enactment of the country’s strictest reproductive rights law, which allows abortion within a few weeks of pregnancy, until the so -called “heartbeat” of the embryo is discovered, which is actually a group of cell that emits electricity. signals. This is before most people know they are pregnant.
The law, which inspired several copies of the bill in other states, makes no exceptions to pregnancies caused by rape or incest. It allows private citizens to sue anyone who “facilitates” an abortion or procedure. That includes the families or friends of the abusers who gave birth to a woman against her will.
The law forced thousands of women to leave Texas to have an abortion if they could.
A study conducted by the Austin Policy Assessment Project at the University of Texas last month found that from last September to December, nearly 1,400 Texans each month traveled to neighboring countries to have abortions.
Source: Huffpost
