Texas officials win dismissal of woman's claims over abortion prosecution

By Daniel Wiessner

April 1 (Reuters) - A federal judge has dismissed a Texas woman's claims that local prosecutors and police violated her constitutional rights by charging her with murder after a self-induced abortion, in a case that had drawn national scrutiny.

U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton in McAllen, Texas, on Tuesday said that individual Starr County officials involved in the 2022 case against Lizelle Gonzalez were entitled to qualified immunity in her lawsuit alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution. Her claims against the county are pending.

Gonzalez, who at the time was 26 and went by Lizelle Herrera, was indicted by a grand jury for murder. The county sheriff's office in arresting her claimed she had "intentionally and knowingly caused the death of an individual by self-induced abortion."

Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez dropped the charges days after Gonzalez was arrested. Texas' murder statute contains an exemption for women who have an abortion, which Ramirez said was overlooked when she was indicted.

The case reignited controversy over Texas' strict abortion law, weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to have an abortion, which effectively upheld the Texas law.

More recent cases have renewed concerns about the potential for women who have abortions to face criminal prosecutions in the more than half of U.S. states that have banned or severely restricted the procedure.

In March, a Georgia woman was charged with murder after she allegedly took abortion medication and the pain drug oxycodone and gave birth to a ‌premature infant who died within hours, in one of the first cases of its kind in that state.

Gonzalez filed a lawsuit in 2024 against Starr County, Ramirez, an assistant district attorney and the county sheriff alleging violations of her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Tipton on Tuesday granted summary judgment to the individual defendants, saying they were immune from the false arrest and malicious prosecution claims because they were acting in their official government capacities and had not violated a clearly established law.

Tipton, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, also dismissed conspiracy claims against the officials. He said that as agents of Starr County, they could not be involved in a conspiracy with the county itself.

The case is Gonzalez v. Ramirez, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, No. 7:24-cv-00132.

For Gonzalez: Adriana Pinon and others from the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas

For the defendants: Rebecca Hayward and others from Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech

Read more:

Prosecutor to drop charges against Texas woman over her abortion

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Georgia woman faces murder charge after taking abortion pill

U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ends constitutional right to abortion