A Texas woman was arrested this week for allegedly performing an “illegal” abortion on herself, authorities said.
Lizelle Herrera was taken into custody Thursday in the southern part of the state near the border with Mexico, and is currently being held in a Starr County jail, detained on a $500,000 bond.
Herrea, 26, “did intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.” a Starr County Sheriff’s office spokesperson told KVEO TV on Friday.
It was not immediately known how far along Herrera was in her pregnancy.
Sheriff’s major Carlos Delgado told reporters that no other information would be made available until Monday.
“I really can’t imagine what they are going through right now,” family friend Romeo Gonzalez told The Post.
Gonzalez, a former teacher who runs an insurance company in Roma, Texas, where Herrera lives with her family said he taught the woman’s father when he was in high school in 1986 and had recently agreed to help Lizelle find work.
“I was waiting for her to send her resume but she never did,” he said.
The Frontera Fund, which funds abortions in Texas, called on their supporters to protest the incarceration, which comes seven months after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed controversial anti-abortion legislation in September banning abortions after six weeks.
Pro-abortion activists have argued that many women don’t even realize they are pregnant in those weeks.
“What we know is that…she was in the hospital and had a miscarriage and divulged some information to hospital staff, who then reported her to the police,” Rockie Gonzalez, the founder and director of the Frontera Fund told Medium.
Frontera Fund posted the phone number of the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, where Herrera is being held, and urged Twitter followers to call to demand her release.
“It’s wrong and unconstitutional for Lizelle to be arrested on alleged murder charges,” the group said.” “Pregnant people should not be criminalized regardless of pregnancy outcomes.”
On Saturday, a small group of activists carrying homemade signs rallied outside the jail, again demanding Herrera’s release
The group also encouraged its members to call Starr County District Attorney G. Allen Ramirez on Monday to drop the charges against Herrera.
Senate Bill 8 also allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs an abortion or “aids and abets” the procedure.
Another Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing medications to induce abortions after the seventh week of pregnancy.
A study released last month from the University of Texas at Austin found that 5,600 Texans traveled to abortion clinics in other states to get abortions between September and December 2021, compared to 500 for the same period in 2019.