Outspoken. Guest: Jessica Pishko. Topic: Policing Pregnancy

Lawyer Jessica Pishko returns to Outspoken with Joy Silver. She is a writer whose current research focuses on sheriff departments nationally. Jessica pens a newsletter called Posse Comitatus. In this episode, she talks about 26-year-old Lizelle Herrera, who was charged with murder for a “self-induced abortion,” taken into custody, and had a judge set her bail at $500,000 in Starr County, Texas. Jessica talks about the power of the sheriff, the misuse of the law through the empowerment of vigilantism, the role of the coroner, the dangerous merging of that role into the position of the sheriff, and the historical background as to how sheriffs gained their power in the South and through the expansion into the West. Jessica and Joy explore the potential of setting of the precedent for other enforcement boondoggles, and what Policing Pregnancy may mean for women going forward.

 Outspoken with Joy Silver is presented by Harcourts Desert Homes.