A Texas woman has been arrested and charged with murder for performing a “self-induced abortion.”
Lizelle Herrera, 26, was arrested by the Starr County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday.
The sheriff’s office said that Herrera “intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” but it is not currently clear if she aborted her own baby or assisted someone else.
“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” sheriff’s major Carlos Delgado told the Guardian.
Delgado said that he will not be releasing any more information until Monday as the case is still under investigation.
Abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks, are banned in Texas. It is also illegal to order abortion pills by mail in the state.
“A study released in March showed that from September to December, nearly 1,400 Texans a month were going to neighboring states for abortions. The study from the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Policy Evaluation Project collected data from 34 of 44 open clinics in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma,” Fox 8 reports.
The report added that “another study led by a University of Texas researcher found an increase in the number of Texans requesting abortion pills from the overseas nonprofit Aid Access. The study, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, found that during the first week of September, requests per day jumped to about 138 compared to a previous average of 11. Over the subsequent weeks in September, requests averaged 37 a day. Then, through December, the average was 30 per day. Researchers noted they didn’t know if all requests resulted in abortions.”
Herrera was released on Saturday after posting a $500 thousand bond.
