Texas Arrests Midwife and Associate on Charges of Providing Abortions

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, SCOTUSblog

Texas Arrests Midwife and Associate on Charges of Providing Abortions

The two arrests in greater Houston appear to be the first time health care providers have been charged with violating abortion bans in their state since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.


Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that a midwife had been “charged with the illegal performance of an abortion, a second-degree felony, as well as practicing medicine without a license.” Anna Watts for The New York Times

By J. David Goodman
Reporting from Houston
Published March 17, 2025
Updated March 18, 2025, 11:28 a.m. ET

A midwife and an associate have been arrested and charged with illegally performing abortions in greater Houston, according to court records and the Texas attorney general, apparently the first criminal arrests of abortion providers since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Ken Paxton, the attorney general in Texas, said in a statement that the midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, operated clinics in several towns around Houston, including two in Harris County, the state’s most populous county, and one in Waller County, a more rural and conservative jurisdiction where the charges were brought.

The statement said that she had been “charged with the illegal performance of an abortion,” which has been a second-degree felony since the state’s near-total abortion ban took effect in 2022. She was also charged with practicing medicine without a license. ... Court records released late Monday indicated that a person who worked with Ms. Rojas, Jose Ley, 29, was also arrested and charged with the same offenses. The records showed Ms. Rojas and Mr. Ley were being held on $500,000 bond in Waller County, west of Houston, where the charges were brought.

Lawyers for Ms. Rojas and Mr. Ley could not immediately be reached. But a friend said that Ms. Rojas had been arrested earlier this month while driving to one of her clinics. ... "She was on her way to the clinic and got pulled over by the police at gunpoint and handcuffed,” said the friend, a fellow midwife, Holly Shearman, who said she had spoken with Ms. Rojas by phone last week. “She said they wouldn??t tell her what was happening. She said they took her to Austin.”

{snip}

Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

J. David Goodman is the Houston bureau chief for The Times, reporting on Texas and Oklahoma. More about J. David Goodman

[ck4829]

1. All it takes is one juror to nullify this nonsense

[Comrade Citizen]

2. Of course, Waller

Home to the excellent HBCU, Prairie View A&M.
The county is only 40% white, but it is ruled with an iron fist by them.
They treated Sandra Bland horribly because Jim Crow is still considered law there.

[SARose]

3. Updated info

Lawyers for Houston-area midwife accused of illegal abortions condemn state’s investigation

When the Texas Attorney General’s office announced its first arrest under Texas’ abortion laws, the court filings and press statements painted a shocking picture.

Maria Rojas, a Houston-area midwife, was portraying herself as a doctor and using untrained employees to perform illegal abortions for cash, pushing unwitting women into terminating wanted pregnancies, the records said, citing a monthlong investigation involving surveillance, search warrants and first-hand witnesses.

But at a court hearing Thursday, Rojas’ lawyers got their first opportunity to tell their side of the story. They described an above-board telemedicine-based medical practice that offered a range of services, including maternal health care appropriate for a midwife, and argued the state’s investigator has no first-hand knowledge of Rojas performing the acts of which she is accused.

The investigation was marked with “complete shoddiness and lack of thoroughness,” and the arrest affidavit was filled with “conjecture,” “wild conclusions” and “rank speculation,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel with the Center for Reproductive Rights, told the judge.

Snip

More

Well looky here! The little weasel’s investigation contained conjecture, wild conclusions and rank speculation. Color me not surprised.