Houston midwife accused of illegal abortions appeals clinic closures

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A Houston-area midwife accused of performing illegal abortions has laid out the case for her innocence for the first time, alleging in an appeal filed Monday that the Texas Attorney General’s office was so desperate to prosecute an abortion case that it “conducted a shoddy investigation and leapt to wild conclusions.”

“The Attorney General boasts that he has caught a ‘Houston-Area Abortionist’ and has shut down ‘Clinics Providing Illegal Abortions,’” the appeal begins. “But there’s a snag: it isn’t true.”

Maria Rojas, a 48-year-old native of Peru who ran a string of health clinics for primarily low-income and Spanish-speaking clientele, is asking the First Court of Appeals to overturn a temporary injunction that prevents her from practicing medicine or operating her clinics.

Rojas was arrested twice in March, first on charges of practicing medicine without a license and then on additional charges of performing an illegal abortion. She is the first person arrested under Texas’ near-total abortion ban, which comes with up to life in prison and $100,000 fines.

She has not yet been formally indicted on these criminal charges. But in the meantime, the Office of the Attorney General brought a civil suit asking a judge to shut down her clinics and bar her from practicing. A Waller County judge granted the temporary injunction in late March.

“This is a critical win in our fight to uphold Texas law, protect the unborn, and protect all Texans from dangerous clinics practicing medicine without a license,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement at the time. “Rojas and her network of illegal clinics operated with blatant disregard for the law, putting people’s lives at risk.”

Her lawyers now argue the injunction was improper because it didn’t explain why it was necessary or what it prohibited, and it didn’t set a trial date. They assert that there is no evidence that Rojas practiced medicine without a license, as opposed to providing services consistent with a midwife, and question why the chief investigator was not present at the hearing to be questioned.

Rojas is represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based nonprofit law firm that has led high-profile lawsuits against state abortion bans, including in Texas.

In the appeal, Rojas’ attorneys raise questions about whether the woman investigators claim underwent an illegal abortion was actually treated for a miscarriage. The appeal asserts that Rojas told the woman her pregnancy would not be successful and gave her a low dose of misoprostol — a treatment regimen appropriate for managing a miscarriage, not inducing an abortion. The lawyers questioned why investigators didn’t fact-check this woman’s story with the data stored on the clinic’s ultrasound machine, which they seized as part of the investigation.

Rojas’ lawyers also questioned whether Paxton has the authority to seek a temporary injunction or bring a lawsuit on behalf of the state in an abortion-related case. Texas’ abortion ban has criminal and civil penalties, but does not explicitly allow the Attorney General to pursue injunctive relief or file suit on behalf of the state, the appeal says.

The Office of the Attorney General did not respond to a request for comment. The state has filed a motion to transfer the appeal to the 15th Court of Appeals, a new court specifically for lawsuits by or against the state. That motion is unopposed but still pending.

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