Woman’s Lawsuit Over Criminalized Abortion Gets Tossed by Trump-Appointed Judge

Nearly two years after Lizelle Gonzalez filed a civil lawsuit against Texas prosecutors for wrongfully jailing her over a self-managed abortion, a Trump-appointed judge on Tuesday dismissed the case by declaring the officials involved were protected by “qualified immunity.” Ah, yes, because what’s more overrated in a thriving republic than, say, due process?

Gonzalez’s case garnered international attention in 2022, when she (then Lizelle Herrera) went to Starr County Memorial Hospital seeking medical help after taking misoprostol, the second pill taken in a medication abortion. The 26-year-old was 19 weeks pregnant, and after she was treated and discharged, hospital staff called the police on her—mind you, this was months before Roe was overturned, and before Texas imposed its current total ban. Police then wrongfully charged her with murder.

While Texas had already passed SB 8 in 2021, which banned abortion at six weeks, the law explicitly forbade charging pregnant people who got an abortion, only the doctor or health care provider. Gonzalez was jailed for two days before prosecutors dropped the charge for lack of an actual case, but not before her mugshot and name were splashed across the news. 

For the last year, Gonzalez has been seeking $1 million in federal damages, and initially argued that the “humiliation of a highly publicized indictment and arrest…permanently affected her standing in the community.” Gonzalez’s lawsuit accused officials of wrongful arrest, but also of malicious prosecution and conspiracy. In February, Nevada forked over a measly $100,000 to another woman after the state put her through a similar ordeal. 

The judge who dismissed Gonzalez’s case is U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton, another MAGA gadfly who also apparently protected officials with the same shoddy “qualified immunity” ruling after they botched a response in the aftermath of the tragic Uvalde school shooting in 2022. If I had a penny for every crooked judge Trump’s put into power…

According to court documents, the Starr County District Attorney, Gocha Allen Ramirez, knew all along that the case had no standing, admitting via text messages that he “should never have indicted her…because it’s not murder in Texas.” What’s more is that in August, it was also revealed that he himself had paid for his mistress’s abortion in the late 90s.

Speaking to the Texas Tribune, he admitted the entire case was a “mistake” and that he’s “sincerely sorry it happened.” Hm.

The man’s done no actual self-reflection about just how much he’s fucked up, however, because he also said he felt “tremendously vindicated.” “There was an apology made by me personally to her. Whether or not her rights were violated is a legal question and that legal question has been determined by a federal judge.” 

Ah, well, you know what they say. Zero things can be true at once. 

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