TEXAS — Murder charges against a woman who had a self-induced abortion are being dismissed, according to Starr County officials. Twenty-six-year-old Lizelle Hererra was arrested Thursday and held on a $500,000 bond before being released Saturday.

What You Need To Know

  • Murder charges against a woman who had a self-induced abortion are being dismissed 

  • The woman was initially arrested for  “intentionally and knowingly causing the death of an individual”, according to Starr County officials

  • Starr County District Attorney says she cannot actually be prosecuted upon a closer look at the law

County officials initially said she was arrested for “intentionally and knowingly causing the death of an individual.” But this weekend, the Starr County District Attorney said that a closer inspection of the law revealed that Hererra actually cannot be prosecuted.

The news was first reported by The Monitor in McAllen, Texas. More details, like how the abortion was performed or how far along the pregnancy was, have yet to be released.

It’s unclear under what statue Hererra was arrested, since current Texas abortion law exempts pregnant people from criminal murder charges. Even the most recent Texas law, which uses lawsuits to enforce a ban on abortions after six weeks, does not allow for civil or criminal punishments for those who get abortions.

“The problem with this prosecution is that the Texas law is very clear that homicide does not apply to the pregnant person who has undergone an abortion,” said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “Texas criminal law, even setting aside the constitutionality, just doesn’t allow prosecutors to charge people who were formally pregnant with homicide.”

The district attorney in Starr County presented the charges to a grand jury last month. Sepper says the fact that this case made it as far as it did is “baffling.”

“I have to think the grand jury was simply not instructed on the existence of the [exception],” said Sepper. “[The law] is very clear. Anyone with a fourth-grade reading level could understand what it means.”

The arrest quickly garnered national attention and outrage, especially as Texas creates headlines for further restricting abortion. But while Texas has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, Sepper says officials stepped out of bounds in this case.

“The prosecutor has prosecutorial discretion not to charge for crimes that exist,” said Sepper. “But they can’t invent crimes and charge them.”