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.
iirc the hospital tipped the police about the abortion
which does, in fact, make me more angry
How does that not violate HIPPA? Do you have a source; out of curiosity?
There’s some situations where say, a person may be hospitalized after a car-accident and also has prior warrants out for them (the police were already involved with the wreck and now know the ‘wanted’ person has gone to a certain hospital). So the police will leave paperwork in the patient’s chart, asking for a “courtesy call” when the patient is about to be discharged, so that they can than be arrested. But it’s technically not “mandatory” (oh, I was busy and forgot to call the detective!), but the system definitely makes it feel mandatory
But being tipped off about a patients’ medical condition‽ So that they can be arrested afterward for said medical condition‽ I’m sorry, but how the actual fuck does that fly in any logical realm?
If true: the hospital should be held accountable for violation of HIPPA, which is a federal law. Fuck their state laws, that’s not how it works
They are also under suit, for those reasons. Per the article
You’re right though, I only read the summary and then commented from there. Having now read the full article, it seems that it’s the “county” (that runs the hospital) listed in the lawsuit. Why not the hospital themselves? Or is that how the law works (as in, who is liable) when dealing with federal laws that were broken?
Maybe it’s a county-run hospital? I didn’t know the answer to this one, I didn’t do any further follow up
Yeah, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act does not allow cops to access your medical records at all, unless they have a warrant. Even if they have a warrant, they can’t add or remove anything. No one at the hospital is going to tip off police; we want people to seek care without being afraid of the consequences. If the cops were involved in a car accident, they’ll have details from the vehicle registration. They’ll follow up when the patient is out of the hospital.
TLDR the cops can’t fuck with your medical records, and if the hospital released records illegally whoever did it is fukd.
thats a lot of questions im not qualified to answer, unfortunately
I didnt get any further than blind outrage at the situation and fantasies about fist-fighting the people at fault