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On Lizelle Herrera, the Woman Charged with Murder in Texas for an Abortion

On Lizelle Herrera, the Woman Charged with Murder in Texas for an Abortion

Last updated on: April 9, 2022 at 12:25 pm by Mary Pezzulo

On Lizelle Herrera, the Woman Charged with Murder in Texas for an Abortion 2022-04-09T12:25:03-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

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I want to draw your attention to the case of 26-year-old Lizelle Herrera, who is in jail on a charge of murder because she allegedly had a “self-induced abortion.”

There are not a lot of facts in the news about this case yet. What I know is that a young woman, 26-year-old Lizelle Herrera, has been charged with murder after having been accused of giving herself an abortion. One source is saying that “What is alleged 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.” But I don’t see that in the other news sources– just the woman and that she’s being charged with murder for a self-induced abortion.

Whatever the case, the poor woman is being held on $500,000 bond in Texas, down near the border.

For all we know, some other information will come up later to make this make a lot more sense. But I can’t imagine anything that would make it seem right or just to do this.

I hope you’re angry, no matter where you stand on abortion.

I hope pro-lifers are particularly angry. Because I have been reassured for years that this would never happen– that anti-abortion laws such as the one in Texas would never hurt the mother to an aborted child, only those bloodthirsty abortionists. I have been pooh-poohed and accused of being an anti-Catholic plant only pretending to care about children more times that I can count, because I expressed the belief that something like this would occur in America. I’ve been told since I was a child that this is the opposite of what pro-lifers really want.

I was told again and again that the idea of women going to jail for seeking abortion, or even for having miscarriages that looked too much like abortion, was Liberal slander against good Christian folk who only wanted to protect babies and families. And I believed it. I believed it for years and years. I believed it in spite of the fact that that’s exactly what happens in other countries where abortion is illegal. I believed it in spite of the fact that it happens here. It wasn’t until about 2016 that I began to express my doubt that the pro-life movement was being honest, and was informed that I was being hysterical.

I remember being told we were “Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life.” That mothers were also victims of abortion and we had to do anything we could to help them.

Could it be we’ve all been taken for a ride?

Could it just possibly be that a movement with so much corruption, so deeply in bed with politicians who don’t care about mothers children at all, is not to be trusted? That the way to help prevent as many abortions, and other forms of killing, as possible, is not to pass draconian laws that only move abortions around?

Okay then, let’s help.

I’ve been chided all week long that we ought to make alliances with people we don’t agree with in order to protect the innocent, and I’ve expressed my skepticism. But let’s do it. Everybody get your picket signs and go join the pro-choice protesters who are already out there demanding this poor woman’s release. Let’s give her all the help and comfort we possibly can in this terrible time. Let’s fundraise to get her a great lawyer, and let’s change the laws so this will never happen again. Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life. Free Lizelle Herrera.

That is what you want, isn’t it?

If not, why don’t you?

Image via Pixabay

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.
Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

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