A Texas district attorney said Sunday he moved to stop the murder case against a woman who authorities say had committed a “self-induced abortion.”
Starr Gocha District Attorney Alain Ramirez released a statement saying 26-year-old Liesel Herrera “cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegations against her.”
BREAKING: The district attorney who accused # Liesel Herrera “Self-induced abortion” opens up murder cases.
“The issues surrounding this issue are clearly controversial, but based on Texas law and the facts presented, this is not a criminal case.” pic.twitter.com/0ICPy8QHJP
– Eleanor Klibanov (@eklib) April 10, 2022
Herrera was arrested by police in Rio Grande on Thursday and detained for two nights. A grand jury on March 30 accused him of murder of “intentional and deliberate” [causing] The death of an individual from self-induced abortion ”.
She was released Saturday night on $ 500,000 bail after abortion rights group La Frontera Fund announced bail. Ramirez said the case stemmed from a report submitted to police by a local hospital in January.
“Considering this case, the Starr County Sheriff’s Department clearly performed its duty to investigate the incident, which was brought to their attention by the reporting hospital,” Ramirez said in a statement. “Ignoring the accident means neglecting their duty.”
However, “the discretion of the prosecution belongs to the district attorney’s office and in Texas the prosecutor’s oath is to administer justice,” he continued. “After this oath, the only correct result of this question is the immediate reversal of the charge against Mrs. Herrera.”
Steve Vladek, professor of law at the University of Texas; He told public radio in Texas that the Herrera murder case based on vague information in the case was meaningless.
The Texas Murder Statute defines the murder of an unborn fetus, but it specifically denies cases “Where the abortion is pregnant,” he said.
The arrests come amid ongoing aggressive attacks on abortion rights in Texas and other states. Texas got a quick response to the adoption of SB8 in September, a law that blames abortion in the first six weeks of pregnancy and forces private citizens to sue anyone who has an abortion or aids in accessing the procedure.
“Although Ms. Herrera was not charged for the incident, it is clear to me that the events leading up to the allegations hurt Ms. Herrera and his family. “Ignoring this fact would be far -fetched,” Ramirez said in a statement. “The issues surrounding this issue are clearly controversial, but based on Texas law and the facts presented, this is not a criminal case.”
Source: Huffpost
