Texas abortion laws specify no charges for the woman seeking an abortion | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Women who receive abortions in Texas are charged with attempted murder and sentenced to prison

A Feb. 8 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a link to an article about a Texas man jailed for drugging his wife to try to induce an abortion.

"Let me get this straight," the post reads in part. "A man gives his wife a drink to induce an abortion without her knowledge and he gets 180 days in jail. ... If the woman had tried to induce the abortion, she would be charged with attempted murder and subject to a much longer sentence."

A similar post shared on X, formerly Twitter, by U.S. Congressional candidate Qasim Rashid claims women who have abortions in the state are fined $10,000 and face life in prison. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.

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Our rating: False

Texas' abortion laws apply to physicians and others who perform abortions, not the women undergoing the procedure. There have been cases where charges were brought and later dropped against women, but the statutory language specifically prohibits charging the woman seeking the abortion.

Post misrepresents Texas abortion laws

The man shown in the Facebook post, Houston attorney Mason Herring, pleaded guilty to injuring a child and assaulting a pregnant person after he slipped abortion pills into his wife's drinks on multiple occasions. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years of probation.

Though Texas has some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, claims that Herring's wife would've faced a more severe sentence had she taken these pills herself misrepresent the state's statutes.

Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Heartbeat Act, bans abortions after six weeks except in cases of life-threatening or severe health conditions. Those who perform abortions face first- or second-degree felony charges, according to House Bill 1280, a so-called "trigger law" that took effect in Texas two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The punishment includes prison time from five to 99 years and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Texas penal code.

Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, told USA TODAY the claim is misleading because the state exempts pregnant people from criminal charges directly related to abortion.

HB 1280 and SB8 explicitly say they "may not be construed" to allow charges to be brought against a pregnant woman on whom an abortion is performed, induced or attempted.

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Ziegler said the issue isn't completely black-and-white, however, because there have been cases where charges were brought against women and later dropped.

One instance of this was Lizelle Herrera, a Texas woman who was indicted for murder for a “self-induced abortion" but later had the charge dropped by the county prosecutor. The prosecutor, District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez, said in a statement that she sought the dismissal because "in reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her."

The Texas State Law Library, a government publication, also hedges in its description of the law, saying, "The patient who obtains an abortion is rarely at risk of criminal penalties under Texas's statutes."

Ziegler said the "wishy-washy" language is most likely an attempt by the state to leave room for charges related to abortion. Both she and Sonia Sutter, a law professor at George Washington University, said Texas' abortion laws don't necessarily protect pregnant women from child endangerment charges.

Ziegler said these charges could include substance abuse during pregnancy or assault inducing an abortion, similar to the case of Brittany Watts, who was charged in Ohio with felony abuse of a corpse for passing her nonviable fetus in the bathroom.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact debunked a similar claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Social media posts misrepresent Texas abortion laws | Fact check