A Texas woman who was jailed and charged with murder after self-managing an abortion in 2022 can move forward with her lawsuit against the local sheriff and prosecutors over the case that drew national outrage before the charges were quickly dropped, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton denied a motion by prosecutors and the sheriff to dismiss the lawsuit during a hearing in the border city of McAllen. Lizelle Gonzalez, who spent two nights in jail on the murder charges and is seeking $1 million in damages in the lawsuit, did not attend the hearing.

Texas has one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans and outlaws the procedure with limited exceptions. Under Texas law, women seeking an abortion are exempt from criminal charges, however.

Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez and other defendants have argued their positions provide them immunity from civil lawsuits.

Rick Navarro, an attorney for the defense, argued that it was “at worst a negligence case” during the hearing. Ramirez has previously told The Associated Press that he “made a mistake” in bringing charges.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.

      ~ George Carlin

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      So you’re also a fascist because you believe that your personal opinions should be forced on everyone else. You think that an unborn fetus is a child, everyone else disagrees with you, who’s right? Of course it’s you isn’t it, because it’s your opinion. And you’re always right.

        • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          So when you were in your mothers womb, imagine if your mom was like “I don’t want this” and you would not have been born and got to live.

          Then I wouldn’t have given half a fuck because I would not have been born and gotten to live.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          4 months ago

          I wouldn’t have cared would I, because I would never have found out about it. If you think this is some kind of gotcha then you’ve seriously missing the plot.

          Who would of thought that being against killing the unborn was radicial.

          You really can’t see outside of your own bubble can you? There are a lot of people who fundamentally disagree that it constitutes murder, they do not believe someone that has not yet been born, and frankly doesn’t even have a nervous system yet, is a human. You’re operating on the faulty assumption that your belief is universal and so people think murder is fine, but really your several steps back from being able to even begin to comprehend their argument.

          Trying to explain abortions to a fundamentalist is like trying to explain science to a fundamentalist, your whole world view is just so completely skewed that you can’t even comprehend what I’m saying.