Supreme Court's silence on key issue sends a 'chilling message' to women: expert

The Supreme Court's silence on a key issue has sent a "chilling message" to women across America, according to one expert.

For years, the Supreme Court has seemed reluctant to address questions surrounding qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields police officers and other law enforcement officials from damages in civil lawsuits. That refusal has put women who seek abortion care into a corner when their rights are violated, even in instances where they are supposed to be protected by state law, according to Mary Ziegler, a law professor at UC Davis and an abortion care historian.

Ziegler recalled the recent case of Lizelle Herrera in a new Slate article on Monday. Herrera was arrested in 2022 under Texas's anti-abortion laws after telling a doctor she had taken the abortion pill misoprostol while she was receiving treatment for pregnancy complications. After two days in jail, Herrera was released, and all her charges were dropped.

But Herrera's troubles started when she tried to sue the law enforcement for falsely arresting her, Ziegler noted. For instance, she cited a recent judge's orders to throw out the case because "it wasn’t clear the sheriff’s office had violated [Herrera's] rights by following prosecutors’ orders."

"[Herrera's] case isn’t over, but it has already sent a chilling message," Ziegler noted. "Prosecutions of abortion seekers are only going to increase, and prosecutors will see rulings like this one as a green light to ignore the laws that claim to protect them."