Texas woman sues prosecutors who charged her with murder over abortion
Lizelle Gonzalez is seeking US$1 million in damages
Pro-choice and anti-abortion both demonstrate outside the United States Supreme Court as the court hears arguments over a challenge to a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks in Washington, US, November 1, 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
MCALLEN, TEXAS: A Texas woman who was charged with murder over self-managing an abortion and spent two nights in jail has sued prosecutors along the US-Mexico border who put the criminal case in motion before it was later dropped.
The lawsuit filed by Lizelle Gonzalez in federal court Thursday (Mar 28) comes a month after the State Bar of Texas fined and disciplined the district attorney in rural Starr County over the case in 2022, when Gonzalez was charged with murder in “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.”
Under the abortion restrictions in Texas and other states, women who seek abortion are exempt from criminal charges.
The lawsuit argues Gonzalez suffered harm from the arrest and subsequent media coverage. She is seeking US$1 million in damages.
“The fallout from Defendants’ illegal and unconstitutional actions has forever changed the Plaintiff’s life,” the lawsuit stated.
Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez said Friday that he had not yet been served the lawsuit and declined comment. Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, the county's top elected official, also declined comment.
According to the lawsuit, Gonzalez was 19 weeks pregnant when she used misoprostol, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions. Misoprostol is also used to treat stomach ulcers.
After taking the pills, Gonzalez received an obstetrical examination at the hospital emergency room and was discharged with abdominal pain. She returned with bleeding the next day and an exam found no fetal heartbeat. Doctors performed a caesarian section to deliver a stillborn baby.
The lawsuit argues that the hospital violated the patient’s privacy rights when they reported the abortion to the district attorney’s office, which then carried out its own investigation and produced a murder charge against Gonzalez.
Cecilia Garza, an attorney for Gonzalez, said prosecutors pursued an indictment despite knowing that a woman receiving the abortion is exempted from a murder charge by state law.
Ramirez announced the charges would be dropped just days after the woman’s arrest but not before she’d spent two nights in jail and was identified by name as a murder suspect.
In February, Ramirez agreed to pay a US$1,250 fine and have his license held in a probated suspension for 12 months in a settlement reached with the State Bar of Texas. He told The Associated Press at the time that he “made a mistake” and agreed to the punishment because it allows his office to keep running and him to keep prosecuting cases.
