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 (the actual abortion patient isn’t liable). 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. David Donatti, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas who's representing Gonzalez, proceeded to read them for filth. “What we intend to show is that negligence doesn’t explain this oversight. It is the role and function of prosecutors to be aware of the elements of the statutes that they are charging,” he said. U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton sided with Donatti and Gonzalez, dismissing the Starr County prosecutors’ attempts to dismiss the case and permitting it to move forward. In April 2022, the Starr County Sheriff’s office told Jezebel that Gonzalez was alleged to have “intentionally and knowingly cause[d] the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.” After her arrest on April 7, 2022, she was held in jail on a $500,000 bond, which local organizers fundraised to cover. Ramirez’s office ultimately dropped the murder charge against Gonzalez, explaining in a news release at the time: “In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Gonzalez cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her.” But Gonzalez’s suit, filed earlier this year, insists the damage was already done and the dropped charges didn’t help: “Because the charges stemmed from abortion—a hot button political agenda—the dismissal of the charges did not result in any less media attention. Rather, the media attention was heightened after the dismissal due to the fact that the prosecution was frivolous.” Gonzalez first filed her lawsuit against the Starr County sheriff and prosecutors in March, initially suing Starr County as well, because the county operates the hospital that violated her medical privacy rights by reporting her to law enforcement. (The county isn't named in the April lawsuit she filed.) Unfortunately, it isn't rare for health care workers to endanger their patients in this way: The majority of cases of self-managed abortions that come to the attention of law enforcement, individuals are reported to the police by health care workers. Gonzalez's lawsuit details the ongoing ramifications of…
