Maria Rojas, a Houston-area midwife, was arrested in March for allegedly violating Texas’ near-total abortion ban. She was held for 10 days in the identical jail the place Sandra Bland died after a routine site visitors cease in 2015. Rojas was capable of publish the exorbitant $1.4 million bail with assist, however her telephone was seized and her license was stripped — and with it her means to make an revenue. She was court-ordered to put on a monitoring gadget.
“In Texas, life is sacred. I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn,” Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton, a number one anti-abortion advocate who not too long ago introduced his bid for a U.S. Senate seat, proudly boasted in regards to the arrest.
However three months later, Rojas has not been formally charged with a criminal offense — placing her in an excruciating limbo the place she’s unable to generate profits, however compelled to pay for a pricey authorized protection with little public proof in opposition to her.
It’s customary observe for a legal criticism to be filed shortly after somebody is arrested. However in an uncommon transfer, Rojas was held on an arrest warrant. With no formal indictment or any legal discovery from the state, Rojas can’t start getting ready her protection.
“Mrs. Rojas remains unindicted for any crime. Meanwhile, she remains under exceedingly restrictive bond conditions, and she is prohibited from doing the lawful work as a midwife she was doing before these specious allegations against her were made,” Nicole Hochglaube, Rojas’ protection legal professional, instructed HuffPost.
Reproductive rights are below assault. HuffPost is dedicated to reporting the reality, amplifying voices, and protecting this combat with depth and care. Help our work by becoming a member of our membership program at the moment.
It’s “really unusual” to be arrested however not indicted, C. Melissa Owen, first vp on the Nationwide Affiliation of Felony Protection Legal professionals, instructed HuffPost.
“It was highly unusual 10 days after she had been arrested, and it is exceptionally unusual now,” stated Owen, who can be the co-chair of the NACDL’s activity pressure on policing and overcriminalization of being pregnant.
The Texas Workplace of the Lawyer Normal didn’t reply to HuffPost’s request for remark. Attorneys representing Paxton’s workplace additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.
This has not solely been a troublesome time for Rojas and her household, but additionally the primarily Spanish-speaking, low-income group Rojas as soon as served, Hochglaube stated. The midwife owned and operated a number of well being clinics within the Houston space, all of which have been quickly closed by a court docket order in a civil case introduced by Paxton’s workplace.
“We look forward to clearing her of these allegations but remain in a damaging holding pattern waiting for any specifics about these claims from the State of Texas,” Hochglaube stated.
With out an indictment, Rojas is left in a type of no man’s land the place due course of has been placed on maintain. “There is no possibility of due process for her in this current state,” Owen stated. “Rights only become meaningful through due process. You can’t do anything about an arrest unless you can challenge it.”
“There is no possibility of due process for her in this current state.”
– C. Melissa Owen, Nationwide Affiliation of Felony Protection Legal professionals
The 30-page arrest affidavit filed by Paxton’s workplace is at present the one proof from the state outlining Rojas’ alleged crimes. The investigation into Rojas’ clinics started with an nameless criticism to Texas Health and Human Companies in January. The legal professional normal’s workplace investigated and arrested Rojas and one other employee on costs of training medication with out a license. Weeks later, they had been arrested once more on costs of performing an unlawful abortion.
State investigators surveilled the clinics for just a little over a month earlier this yr after the nameless criticism alleged that two girls obtained unlawful abortions from Rojas in September 2023 and January 2025. One of many two girls later confirmed to investigators that she obtained an abortion from Rojas, in keeping with the arrest warrant. A 3rd girl instructed investigators that Rojas offered herself as a gynecologist and should have supplied a medicine abortion to the girl after Rojas stated she wouldn’t have the ability to carry the being pregnant to time period.
The arrest affidavit said that investigators seized a bottle of misoprostol and $2,900 in money from Rojas’ automotive. The primary investigator wrote that he knew, “based on training and experience, that misoprostol is an abortifacient commonly used to induce medical abortions.”
Final month, Rojas was capable of inform her facet of the story in an enchantment temporary within the civil go well with. Her attorneys painted a really totally different image, accusing Paxton’s workplace of conjecture and a politically motivated investigation that proves nothing.
“The Attorney General boasts that he has caught a ‘Houston-Area Abortionist’ and has shut down ‘Clinics Providing Illegal Abortions.’ But there’s a snag: it isn’t true,” Rojas’ attorneys wrote within the temporary. “In the Attorney General Office’s rush to find and prosecute someone for violating the State’s total abortion ban, it conducted a shoddy investigation and leapt to wild conclusions.”
Witness statements within the arrest warrant “do not show that an abortion was knowingly provided or attempted,” Rojas’ attorneys wrote within the civil enchantment. They argue that investigators’ essential witness — the third girl who alleges Rojas could have supplied a medicine abortion — was given one misoprostol pill, which is one-fourth of the dose wanted for a full medicine abortion. Rojas seemingly believed the girl was experiencing a miscarriage and gave her misoprostol, the usual protocol for miscarriage care.
The primary investigator, who’s a Medicaid fraud investigator, seized a small variety of misoprostol tablets from Rojas’ automotive, however didn’t observe that misoprostol is usually used for different medical points, most notably throughout labor and supply of a child. The affidavit states a number of occasions that Rojas had $2,900 in money and the clinics accepted money fee. The investigator famous that he is aware of “cash-based and digital peer-to-peer transactions are frequently used in unlicensed medical operations to avoid financial scrutiny and regulatory oversight,” however he didn’t observe that people who find themselves uninsured or have immigration considerations are extra seemingly to make use of money.
Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
Marc Hearron, the lead lawyer on Rojas’ civil case and an legal professional with the Middle for Reproductive Rights, stated he’s shocked by what’s taking place to Rojas.
“If the state can do this shoddy investigation, get an arrest warrant and throw you in jail, just by saying the word ‘abortion,’ without even actually having the evidence to back it up — any health care provider is at risk in the state of Texas,” he instructed HuffPost.
Owen, from NACDL, speculated that there are seemingly two essential causes for the state’s delay in indicting Rojas. The primary is that the proof Paxton’s workplace has gathered wouldn’t survive the take a look at of possible trigger. The second is that they do have possible trigger however there’s something suspect in regards to the proof they’ve gathered or how they obtained it.
The shortage of formal legal costs isn’t the one distinctive factor about this case. It’s additionally uncommon that Paxton’s workplace is instantly chargeable for investigating Rojas. The legal professional normal’s workplace in Texas doesn’t have the facility to prosecute somebody on legal costs; the workplace must be invited by a neighborhood district legal professional. Rojas was arrested in Waller County, the place Sean Whittmore, the native district legal professional, is a former worker of Paxton’s.
Rafa Kidvai, an legal professional with the Repro Authorized Protection Fund, pointed to Paxton’s involvement within the case, a normal lack of proof in opposition to Rojas and the bail quantity as causes that they consider it is a political prosecution.
Abortion criminalization circumstances usually do set greater bail quantities, stated Kidvai, as a result of abortion is a politically charged subject. For instance, girls who miscarry into a bathroom and flush fetal stays have been charged with abuse of a corpse. However even inside that context, Rojas’ bail quantity for allegedly performing an unlawful abortion, a second-degree felony in Texas, was “inordinately high,” Kidvai stated.
The common bail quantity for a second-degree felony in Waller County is round $36,000, in keeping with 2024 public information. Rojas’ bail was set at $1.4 million.
“This sort of cruelty by procedure that happens is exactly what we need to be talking about,” Kidvai stated. “If you lose all your financial support or your income, how do you fight the case? Attorneys cost money, going to court costs money, childcare costs money, therapy costs money. Criminal cases are inordinately expensive for people to take on themselves.”
Kidvai has labored on many being pregnant and abortion criminalization circumstances together with a number of in Texas. When somebody is accused of most of these crimes, usually due to being pregnant loss, their group activates them. They lose employment, they’re susceptible to dropping custody of their youngsters, and generally there are immigration penalties.
Rojas spent 10 days in jail earlier than she paid her $1.4 million bail. She was capable of pay the bond with the assistance of bail funds, organizations that present monetary help so folks may be launched from jail earlier than trial.
The $1.4 million bail quantity indicators “that they want to punish somebody and never actually give this person the opportunity to defend themselves,” Owen stated.
“Absent that bail fund, she would be serving a sentence and having no chance to test whether or not there is even a crime here.”
