A Houston-area midwife is the primary individual to be charged in Texas with violating the state’s excessive abortion ban, which outlaws the process beneath almost all circumstances.
Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton’s workplace introduced the arrest of Maria Margarita Rojas on Tuesday, saying an investigation discovered she has been “providing illegal abortions and illegally operating a network of clinics in the Northwest Houston area.” Rojas, who Paxton mentioned glided by Dr. Maria, was charged with the unlawful efficiency of an abortion and training medication with no license.
The previous is a second-degree felony in Texas and is punishable by as much as 20 years in jail.
“In Texas, life is sacred,” Paxton mentioned in a press release. “I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our state’s pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted. Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable.”
An investigation discovered that Rojas owned and operated a number of clinics, together with Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller, Clinica Latinoamericana Telge in Cypress and Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring. At these clinics, Paxton’s workplace alleges, Rojas carried out unlawful abortions and employed “unlicensed individuals who falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals to provide medical treatment.”
Paxton’s workplace didn’t share any particulars about attainable poor well being outcomes at any of Rojas’ clinics. Telephone calls to the three places weren’t answered Monday.
Rojas, who’s listed as a licensed midwife by the Texas Division of Licensing & Regulation, has not spoken out publicly, both immediately or via authorized counsel.
Holly Shearman of Tomball Beginning Middle advised the Texas Tribune that Rojas labored part-time there offering prenatal care. She described Rojas as a religious Catholic and expert midwife whose clinics largely served Spanish-speaking, low-income sufferers.
“I don’t believe it for one second,” Shearman advised the Tribune in regards to the allegations. “I’ve known her for eight years and I’ve never heard her talk about anything like that. I just can’t picture Maria being involved in something like this.”
Reproductive rights advocates have lengthy warned that excessive abortion bans just like the one in Texas ― which solely permits abortion to avoid wasting the life or well being of the mom ― don’t result in fewer abortions, however fairly to much less protected ones.
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“Banning abortion doesn’t stop abortion; it just forces people to turn to illegal and sometimes unsafe methods and increases the inequality between the haves and have-nots, with a particularly devastating impact on people of color,” Deliberate Parenthood notes in its abortion reality sheet.
