The Dodd's decision created a mess across America

Texas woman charged with murder after having abortion sues county, DA

A woman who spent three days in a Texas jail in 2022 after a murder charge was wrongly brought against her for what officials described as a “self-induced abortion” is suing the county and its top prosecutors.

Lizelle Gonzalez, then 26, had gone to a hospital in early 2022 after taking an abortion pill while 19 weeks pregnant. The next day, when no fetal heartbeat was detected, she underwent a Caesarean section to deliver, according to a new lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Texas law at the time banned abortions after six weeks and allowed anyone to sue a person for performing or helping someone get the procedure. But state law also exempts women from facing criminal charges for aborting pregnancies.

Still, in a move that drove intense national attention to the remote Starr County, District Attorney Gocha Ramirez (D) in April 2022 charged Gonzalez with murder. Ramirez decided to drop the charge three days later and has since faced disciplinary action, but the case “forever changed” Gonzalez’s life, her court filing states, noting that her mug shot surfaced online within hours of her arrest.

The lawsuit accuses Starr County, Ramirez and Alexandria Barrera, an assistant district attorney, of providing “false information and recklessly misrepresented facts” to pursue the murder charge.

When news of Gonzalez’s arrest broke in April 2022, abortion rights groups questioned the charge and raised concerns about other people in Texas seeking abortions at a time when many Republican-led states were moving to restrict the procedure in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s consideration of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that summer.

Officials offered few details on the case, including whether Gonzalez — then Lizelle Herrera — had an illegal abortion or had helped someone else get one.

But 40 minutes after she was discharged, Gonzalez was rushed to the hospital with abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, according to the lawsuit. She was given another exam, which showed there was “no fetal cardiac activity” and she had undergone an “incomplete spontaneous abortion,” the document states. She then had a C-section.

Hospital staff later reported the “self-induced abortion” to Ramirez’s office, the lawsuit alleges. Ramirez had been serving as Starr County’s district attorney since January 2021.

On March 30, 2022, Ramirez and Barrera presented the murder charge to a grand jury, according to the lawsuit, and Gonzalez was arrested a week later “despite the plain and concise language” of the Texas law prohibiting criminal homicide charges against women who abort their pregnancies. The filing also alleges that neither the Starr County Sheriff’s Office nor the Rio Grande City Police Department investigated the case before Gonzalez was arrested. Neither agency responded to requests for comment Monday evening.

Gonzalez was taken to a hospital while she was in jail, according to the lawsuit. Cecilia Garza, an attorney for Gonzalez, told The Post on Monday that her client had experienced “anxiety as a result of the charge and arrest.”

Gonzalez’s lawsuit said that the arrest and charge against her “permanently affected her standing in the community.”

Her filing requests damages, including for lost wages and mental anguish, which the document states exceed $1 million.

Could Democrats win Florida in November?

The Florida state Supreme Court on Monday approved two measures to appear on the ballot in the November presidential election: the right to abortion, and recreational marijuana, both strong pulls for Democrats.

Putting abortion on the ballot comes after Florida Republican lawmakers have made abortion practically illegal in the Sunshine State.

“The Florida Supreme Court simultaneously upholds the state’s 15-week abortion ban (which lets the six-week ban take effect, too)—but also approves a ballot initiative that would amend the FL constitution to protect abortion,” reports Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern.

“DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban is about to become law in Florida, and the GOP will need to spend the next seventh months defending it against a ballot initiative that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution,” Stern adds. “Florida’s 2024 election will be about abortion.”

The Washington Post concurs.

John Stemberger, a leading abortion opponent in Florida and the president of Liberty Counsel Action, a conservative advocacy group, said: “We’ve been arguing for 35 years that the privacy clause was about informational privacy and was never intended by the people to create a fundamental right to abortion.”

“We must oppose Prop 4,” said Katie Daniel, State Policy Director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Abortion rights politicians and activists lamented the court’s ruling and called on Floridians to vote for Amendment 4 in November.

“We are deeply disappointed with today’s decision — but with abortion on the ballot in November, this is far from over,” said Whitney White, staff attorney for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in a statement about the court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s abortion ban.

“Floridians must make their voices heard at the ballot box this November on the right to decide when and if to have children,” said Fla. Rep. Kathy Castor (D) in a statement.

The White House said in a Tuesday statement: “Yesterday’s extreme decision puts desperately needed medical care even further out of reach for millions of women in Florida and across the South. … It is outrageous.”

“Florida’s bans — like those put forward by Republican elected officials across the country — are putting the health and lives of millions of women at risk,” it added.

Does this have implications for other states?

The Florida ruling will affect people beyond the state who may previously have sought abortion care in Florida, “a key abortion access state in the Southeast for millions, including people in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi,” said the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

Last year, more than 84,000 people got abortions in Florida, more than in almost any other state. The total number of abortions rose by nearly 2,000. Out-of-state residents comprised a growing percentage of the total, according to a report by the Agency for Health Care Administration.

Other states have also been pushing to get the issue of abortion onto the ballot in November: In Missouri, where abortion is currently banned at all stages with only small number of exceptions, a group seeking to legalize abortion until fetal viability is seeking to gather 172,000 signatures by May 5 for the issue to be put on the ballot. Another campaign backed by Republicans would allow abortion until 12 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Associated Press.

Abortion advocates in South Dakota, which also bans terminations at all stages with only limited exceptions, are seeking to support abortion rights in the first trimester, but would allow restrictions after this point. The local Planned Parenthood affiliate no longer supports the move, the AP reports.

Abortion rights advocates in Arizona, where abortion is currently allowed until 15 weeks, are also seeking to gain constitutional guarantees for until the fetus is viable. The move would require 384,000 valid signatures by July 4, according to the AP.

Is the morning after pill legal in Florida?

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Food and Drug Administration changed the label on the morning after pill to clarify that it does not cause abortion, but instead works mainly by stopping or delaying ovulation. Abortion rights groups welcomed the move amid concerns that antiabortion groups could use misinformation about the morning after pill to push for restrictions and bans on emergency contraception.

Two forms of the morning after pill, also known as emergency contraception or Plan B, are available in Florida without a prescription, according to University of Florida Health.