Texas Arrests Midwife and Associate on Charges of Providing Abortions
A midwife and her associate have been arrested and charged with illegally performing abortions in the greater Houston area, marking what appears to be the first criminal case against abortion providers since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to court records and the Texas attorney general.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that the midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, operated clinics in multiple towns around Houston, including two in Harris County, the state’s most populous county, and another in Waller County, a more rural and conservative jurisdiction where the charges were filed.
According to the statement, Rojas faces charges for the “illegal performance of an abortion,” a second-degree felony under Texas’s near-total abortion ban, which took effect in 2022. She has also been charged with practicing medicine without a license.
Court records released late Monday revealed that a colleague of Rojas, 29-year-old Jose Ley, was also arrested and charged with the same offenses. Both Rojas and Ley are currently being held on a $500,000 bond in Waller County, west of Houston, where the charges were formally brought.
Attorneys for Rojas and Ley have not yet been reached for comment. However, a friend reported that Rojas was taken into custody earlier this month while driving to one of her clinics.
“She was on her way to work when police pulled her over at gunpoint and handcuffed her,” said fellow midwife Holly Shearman, who spoke with Rojas over the phone last week. “She told me the officers wouldn’t explain what was happening before taking her to Austin.”
Shearman also recalled that Rojas mentioned other clinic staff members, possibly a front desk worker, had also been detained.
While many abortion bans across the country have relied on the threat of legal consequences, few have resulted in actual criminal charges. In Texas and other states with strict abortion laws, most providers ceased operations following the Supreme Court’s ruling, leaving women seeking abortions to travel to states where the procedure remains legal or to obtain abortion medication through the mail.
“To my knowledge, this is the first case where someone in a ban state has been accused of directly violating abortion laws,” said Marc Hearron of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In a few instances, individuals have faced prosecution for providing abortion pills to family members, either with or without their consent.
Earlier this year, Louisiana indicted a New York-based doctor on criminal charges for mailing abortion pills to a Louisiana woman, violating the state’s ban. New York, however, refused to extradite the doctor, citing its shield law, which protects providers from prosecution in states with abortion bans.
Texas also pursued a civil case against the same doctor, Margaret Carpenter, for distributing abortion pills to state residents. Carpenter did not contest the case, leading a judge to order her to pay over $100,000 in penalties last month.
However, the Houston-area case involving Rojas represents a more aggressive legal approach.
“In Texas, life is sacred,” Paxton declared in his statement. “I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, uphold our state’s pro-life laws, and ensure that unlicensed individuals who endanger women’s lives by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted.”
Shearman stated that following her initial arrest, Rojas was detained overnight and then released. Court records from Waller County indicate that she was taken into custody in early March for practicing medicine without a license.
As of late Monday, county records had not been updated to reflect additional abortion-related charges, and the district clerk’s office confirmed they had not yet received new filings. A Waller County sheriff’s deputy stated that Rojas had been brought to the local jail on Monday.
Initially arrested on felony charges for practicing medicine without a license, Rojas was released on a $10,000 bond. However, the abortion-related charges were formally added on Monday.
Notably, Rojas was not charged with the most severe form of the offense, which applies when an abortion results in the termination of a pregnancy. The reason for this distinction remains unclear. Paxton’s office has not responded to requests for comment.
According to court documents, Rojas was accused of attempting to perform an abortion on a woman identified as “E.G.” on two separate occasions in March. Law enforcement officials also alleged that she had performed an abortion on another individual earlier this year.
Paxton’s office has since filed a request for a temporary restraining order to shut down Rojas’s clinics in order to prevent further alleged illegal activity.
The investigation that led to the charges originated from the Texas Attorney General’s office, according to Waller County District Attorney Sean Whittmore, who previously worked under Paxton.
Although the attorney general does not have independent authority to enforce criminal laws, he can intervene at the request of local prosecutors, which is what happened in this case, Whittmore explained.
Rojas, 49, was born in Peru and has been a certified midwife in Texas since 2018, according to a website for one of her clinics. She has reportedly assisted in over 700 births across community and hospital settings.
Shearman described Rojas as a dedicated midwife who had previously worked as an obstetrician in Peru before moving to the U.S. She expressed disbelief over the accusations.
“They’re claiming she performed abortions?” Shearman said, identifying herself as politically conservative. “She never even mentioned anything like that. She’s deeply Catholic—I just can’t believe these charges.”
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