Only on 13: Houston mother poisoned during pregnancy by husband fights for laws to protect women

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- More than four years after surviving multiple poisoning attempts, a Houston mother is turning her personal trauma into a mission to protect other women across the country.

In 2024, Catherine Pressly Herring's ex-husband, Mason Herring, took a plea agreement for counts of injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person.

"He asked for a separation," Pressly Herring said. "One week post-separation, I found out I was pregnant. One week later, the poisoning attempts began."

Over a 39-day span, she said he slipped abortion medication into drinks he gave her seven times in an attempt to end her pregnancy.

The first time, she drank one of the spiked beverages and became so ill that she ended up in the hospital.

Before she went to the hospital, she said she called a pregnancy hotline and told them her husband was trying to poison her, but she didn't know with what. She said they advised her to take an abortion reversal pill, which is a large dose of progesterone. She believes that is what ultimately saved her pregnancy.

The next six times he gave her spiked drinks, she said she saved the liquid to ultimately turn over to the police.

"He never actually watched me sip the drinks, so I would pour a little bit out and say thanks for the drink, and he would go on his way," Pressly Herring said.

The legal battle that followed left Pressly Herring feeling like she was not being protected by the state.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office offered Mason Herring a plea agreement of 180 days in jail and 10 years of probation.

"For it to be a slap on the wrist, I didn't feel like the state of Texas was making a stand to protect women and children in horrible domestic violence scenarios," Pressly Herring said.

Today, Mason Herring is behind bars serving an eight-year prison sentence, but not for the original poisoning. He was sent to prison after repeatedly violating a protective order she had against him.

Pressly Herring said she was struck by a recent arrest in neighboring Montgomery County that mirrors her own experience.

Last week, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office announced additional charges against Jon Reuben Demeter, a man accused of secretly slipping abortion pills into his girlfriend's drink, effectively terminating her pregnancy.

READ MORE: Man accused of drugging girlfriend, inducing abortion indicted in Montgomery County: Authorities
For Pressly Herring, the news hit devastatingly close to home.

"It breaks my heart," Catherine said. "I am so sorry for that mom who lost her baby, Presley Mae, and I hope true justice is served in this case and that she will regain strength each day."

While she continues to cope with complex PTSD related to the poisoning, she has focused her energy on systemic change. She recently launched a foundation, Stay at Your Home Mom Foundation, dedicated to providing interest-free home mortgage loans to domestic violence victims navigating a divorce, ensuring they can safely remain in their homes. She said priority will be given to pregnant women and women with young children. The foundation is still in the fundraising stages, and she hopes to start accepting applications at the end of the year.

She has also taken her fight to state legislatures, lobbying to restrict access to abortion drugs so they cannot be easily accessed by abusers.

Her efforts have already changed the law in multiple states. In 2024, Louisiana passed the Catherine and Josephine Herring Act, which designated abortion medication as a controlled substance and criminalized forced or deceptive abortions. Arkansas has since passed similar legislation.

Pressly Herring is hopeful lawmakers in Texas will follow suit.

"It's a trend that's going to increase as the safeguards are completely void," she said. "There's just nothing there, and sadly, cases where the sentencing is light, or it's dismissed, or it's not seen as violent as other cases... I think that just emboldens abusers to keep trying."

She believes protecting women should transcend party lines.

"We have got to put aside politics and better protect women on both sides of the aisle," she said.

Being four years out, Pressly Herring wants peace and healing for her family.

Because of the prenatal poisoning, her daughter Josephine faced severe developmental delays as an infant. She was initially non-verbal, unable to walk, and unable to eat or drink by mouth, requiring intensive therapy.

Today, Josephine is a thriving 3-year-old in preschool, meeting all developmental milestones. Pressly Herring describes her daughter as a "joy."

"I hope to provide others with hope that they can get through it," Catherine said. "That there's peace on the other side."