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Lizelle Gonzalez spent two nights in jail after being charged with murder in “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion."
A Texas woman is suing her local prosecutors after they charged her with murder for self-managing an abortion.
Lizelle Gonzalez was 19 weeks pregnant in 2022 when she used misoprostol, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, which is also used to treat stomach ulcers, the Associated Press. She was discharged from the hospital one day with abominable pain, then returned the next day with bleeding. An exam found no fetal heartbeat, and doctors performed a caesarian section to deliver a stillborn baby.
Gonzalez was arrested after the hospital reported the abortion to the district attorney’s office. She spent two nights in jail after being charged with murder in “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion." The charges were dropped and Gonzalez was released days later, but only after she had been publicly named as a murder suspect.
It is illegal for health care providers to perform or facilitate an abortion in Texas, but patients who receive the treatment are exempt from criminal charges. The State Bar of Texas later punished Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez for bringing the charges at all, forcing him to pay a $1,250 fine and suspending his license for 12 months.
Gonzalez filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday, according to the AP, seeking $1 million in damages for the "deprivation of liberty, reputational harm, public humiliation, distress, pain, and suffering" she experienced. It argues that “the fallout from Defendants’ illegal and unconstitutional actions has forever changed the Plaintiff’s life," as the "humiliation of a highly publicized indictment and arrest" has "permanently affected her standing in the community."
"Because the charges stemmed from abortion – a hot button political agenda – the dismissal of the charges did not result in any less media attention," it states. "Rather, the media attention was heightened after the dismissal due to the fact that the prosecution was frivolous."
The lawsuit claims that the allegations against Gonzalez were not investigated by the sheriff's office nor the local police department, but rather directly by Ramirez's office. Before a grand jury, prosecutors then "present[ed] false information and recklessly misrepresented facts in order to pursue murder charges against Plaintiff for acts clearly not criminal under the Texas Penal Code."
Starr County is located in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, and is home to around 65,000 people. Protests erupted in the area two years ago when authorities first detained Gonzalez, known then under the name Lizelle Herrera, leading to national outrage.
Gonzalez's lawsuit states that it aims to vindicate her constitutional rights, and "to hold accountable the government officials who violated them."
