The full and often unchecked power of the prosecutor was on display when a South Texas woman was charged with murder for a self-induced abortion.
Protesters hold signs outside of the Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City on April 9, 2022. People protested in support of Lizelle Herrera, a woman being held at the jail on a count of murder for allegedly having a self-induced abortion., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Three days after the initial arrest, Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez said he would be exercising “prosecutorial discretion” by“In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” he wrote in a press release.
As elected prosecutor for Dallas County, Wade had the power to bring charges against any county resident who violated the law. To block Texas’ abortion law, Roe’s lawyers would have to start by blocking Wade. So they filed a suit challenging Wade’s authority to enforce a law they alleged was overly vague and violated the right to personal privacy.
That law does not allow for the pregnant person to be prosecuted for having an abortion, but it would open up a whole world of legal questions that district attorneys, defense lawyers and medical providers would have to navigate. In other jurisdictions, though, district attorneys may take an opposite approach, either due to personal anti-abortion leanings or political pressure.on abortion-related criminalization, said there’s a useful foreshadowing in how voter fraud cases have played out in recent years.
“Except that there’s always political checks on them for failing to prosecute crimes that their citizens want prosecuted,” he said. “That’s how you get defeated next time you run for district attorney.”, R-Deer Park, is planning to introduce legislation that could radically change that balance of power.
If the trigger law goes into effect, Rhodes said it’s likely that abortion clinics will comply with the law,since Texas passed a ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The attention, he said, will then shift to the myriad other ways people access abortion care when clinics aren’t an option.
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