Lizelle Herrera’s case highlights the misunderstood realities of abortion access, criminalization, and advocacy in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley

Cross-movement collaboration at the intersections of criminal and reproductive justice helped local organizers mobilize quickly

by Tina Vásquez
April 21st, 2022

On April 8, a small news outlet covering Texas’ Rio Grande Valley published a story that sent shockwaves through the reproductive justice movement. A woman named Lizelle Herrera was arrested April 7 by the Starr County Sheriff’s Office and charged with murder for allegedly having a self-induced abortion, which is when a person chooses to perform their own abortion outside of a medical setting. According to her indictment, Herrera “intentionally and knowingly” caused “the death of an individual.” She was held at the Starr County Jail, and her bond was set at $500,000.

In the days since Herrera’s story was made public, there has been a great deal of reporting about whether her criminalization was simply “a hasty error” by a district attorney or a case that should be treated as “a warning” that “foreshadows [a] post-Roe future.” But for reproductive justice advocates in Texas who are forced to navigate some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, Herrera’s case isn’t merely a sign of what’s to come; it’s a reality that low-income women of color overwhelmingly shoulder. It’s also the inevitable result of complicated, convoluted anti-abortion laws.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2022/04/21/realities-navigating-texas-anti-abortion-laws/

USA – If You Want to Protect Pregnant People From Arrest, Fund Red-State Clinics

Apr 13, 2022
Robin Marty, Rewire News

This past weekend, the murder charge against Lizelle Herrera, a Texas woman accused of inducing her own abortion, made national headlines. According to local activists at Frontera Fund, an abortion fund based in South Texas, Herrera’s arrest allegedly happened after she visited a hospital where, while in the process of miscarrying, she may have provided medical staff with information that made them believe she had induced her own abortion. (The charge was dropped Sunday.)

Whether or not Herrera did something to provoke a miscarriage, the reality is that her arrest and murder charge prove exactly what we have always known: Abortion opponents lie when they claim they will not investigate miscarriages, or that pregnant people will not end up in jail because of their anti-abortion laws. Just like Rosie Jiménez, who died in 1977 because she could not afford a safe abortion, South Texans have become the bellwether of the true harm of abortion bans in the United States.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/04/13/if-you-want-to-protect-pregnant-people-from-arrest-fund-red-state-clinics/

Texas Is the Future of Abortion in America

March 6, 2022
By Mary Tuma

For half a year, Roe v. Wade — the 1973 Supreme Court decision that guarantees abortion rights for all Americans — has been effectively moot in the second largest state in the country, home to about 10 percent of the nation’s reproductive-age women.

On Sept. 1, the Supreme Court allowed Texas Senate Bill 8 to go into effect — the most restrictive abortion law to do so in the United States since Roe. There’s a good chance that Texans will not see their reproductive rights restored any time soon — because Roe itself could be overturned or gutted before the fate of S.B. 8 is resolved in the courts.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/opinion/abortion-texas-sb-8-roe-v-wade.html

Texas woman died after an unsafe abortion years ago. Her daughter fears same thing may happen again

By Nicole Chavez, CNN
Oct 11, 2021

Outside the only abortion clinic in the border city of McAllen, Texas, a debate has played out for years. Some people pray and beg patients to not go inside as some volunteers escort patients to the entrance. But none of them were there when Rosie Jimenez died just across the street more than 40 years ago.

As thousands of people marched to the Supreme Court in support of reproductive rights earlier this month, Rosie's photo was displayed in banners and her name was repeated by crowds at vigils and rallies across Texas, Arizona, California and Oregon. In McAllen, there was a defiant mood. Activists held a rally about eight blocks from the clinic that stands across the street from city hall.

Continued: https://www.henryherald.com/news/texas-woman-died-after-an-unsafe-abortion-years-ago-her-daughter-fears-same-thing-may/article_f3fd29b8-8407-5993-baa1-53c0c897a425.html

October 3rd, 1977: Remembering Rosie Jiménez On the Day She Died From An Unsafe Abortion

BY ANDREA REINDL
OCTOBER 3, 2021

On October 2nd, the Women’s March took to the streets of Washington, D.C. This time, women were marching with reproductive rights as the primary cause in their hearts. On September 1st, the United States Supreme Court declined to comment on Texas’s new SB 8 law–a law that makes it illegal for a woman to terminate her pregnancy after six weeks. This isn’t just a fight for abortion rights–it’s a fight for the health and safety of American women, period. And there is very real history that proves why safe abortion access for all women is of dire importance.

On Sunday, October 3rd, 1977, Rosaura “Rosie” Jiménez died after getting a botched abortion in McAllen, Texas. She was denied a safe abortion because of the Hyde Amendment.

Continued: https://wearemitu.com/fierce/october-3rd-1977-remembering-rosie-jimenez-on-the-day-she-died-from-an-unsafe-abortion/

How the Hyde Amendment Hearing Can Affect the Future of Abortion Rights

Reproductive rights and justice organizations weigh in on the historic House hearing.

BY CHELSEY SANCHEZ
DEC 9 2020

Over the course of more than four decades, Congress has annually renewed the Hyde Amendment, a highly controversial measure that reproductive rights activists say keeps abortion inaccessible to marginalized communities. That could all change, however, as the House Appropriations Committee held a historic, virtual hearing yesterday on the disproportionately negative impacts of the amendment.

Simply put, the Hyde Amendment broadly bars federal funding for abortion costs, meaning Medicaid recipients—who overwhelmingly come from communities of color or low-income communities—lack abortion coverage.

Continued: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a34906333/hyde-amendment-facts/

An Anti-Abortion Law Killed Rosie Jimenez 43 Years Ago. It’s Still In Effect

ZOE AVELLAN
OCTOBER 20, 2020

When I was younger, I always welcomed October — the change of seasons, the cooler weather, the whole autumn experience. Now, October reminds me of the struggles I overcame, and it makes me think about a young Tejana who faced similar struggles 43 years ago — with tragic consequences.

Rosie Jimenez was born and raised about an hour away from my hometown, in the region of southern Texas known as the Rio Grande Valley. She came from a family similar to mine, with Mexican roots and humble beginnings. But I only heard about her story a few years ago.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10069843/hyde-amendment-abortion-funding-cost-care

USA – It’s High Time We End Hyde If We Are Serious About Racial Justice

It's High Time We End Hyde If We Are Serious About Racial Justice [Op-Ed]
The Hyde Amendment blocks women from using federal funds such as Medicaid to end unwanted pregnancies. On this 43rd anniversary of a rule that places undue burden on women of color, we say enough is enough.

Jessica González-Rojas, Marcela Howell, Sung Yeon Choimorrow
Sep 30, 2019

Say her name: Rosie Jimenez. She was a 27-year-old Chicana, the daughter of migrant farm workers, living in McAllen, Texas, in 1977. She had a 5-year-old daughter she loved dearly. She was a student just six months shy of graduating and pursuing her dream of becoming a special education teacher. Yet, those dreams were never realized because Rosie died from an unsafe abortion she was forced to pursue because of the Hyde Amendment.

More than 40 years later, we still lack justice for Rosie’s untimely and unnecessary death. We must still contend with the stark injustice of the Hyde Amendment and similar restrictions, which deny coverage for safe abortion to people with Medicaid insurance, federal employees, military personnel, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives and federal prisoners. And political leaders still shy away from condemning the Hyde Amendment for what it is—a blatantly racist policy that essentially says women of color and women with low incomes are not worthy of making their own decisions over their bodies.

Continued: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/its-high-time-we-end-hyde-if-we-are-serious-about-racial-justice-op-ed