The extreme move comes after Texas passed a draconian anti-abortion law last year that has forced thousands of women to seek care out of state.
A 26-year-old Texas woman has been arrested and charged with murder after authorities said she had a “self-induced abortion.”
Lizelle Herrera was arrested Thursday when officials said she “intentionally and knowingly cause[d] the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” according to a spokesperson for the Starr County Sheriff’s Office.
No details about the “abortion” or fetus were provided.
Herrera was still in custody Friday. Her bail was set at $500,000, according to Valley Central, which was the first to report the arrest.
La Frontera Fund, an abortion assistance fund based in the Rio Grande Valley, was planning a protest for Saturday morning outside the Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City, Texas Public Radio reported.
“This arrest is inhumane. We are demanding the immediate release of Lizelle Herrera,” Rockie Gonzalez, founder and board chair of Frontera, told the news outlet.
“What we do know is that criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent,” Gonzalez explained.
The law, which has inspired several copycat bills in other states, provides no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. It allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs an abortion or “aids and abets” a procedure. That includes the families or friends of rapists who impregnate a woman against her will.