A Texas midwife has been arrested on accusations of offering unlawful abortions, changing into the primary particular person to be criminally charged beneath the state’s near-total abortion ban.
Maria Margarita Rojas, 48, is accused of working at the very least three clinics within the Houston space, the place she offered medical care, together with abortions, in direct violation of the Lone Star State’s restrictive and controversial legal guidelines.
Rojas was arrested on March 6 and launched on bond the following day, in accordance with Waller County District Legal professional Sean Whittmore, who has since referred the case to the state lawyer basic’s workplace.
Rojas is going through a pair of counts in reference to the allegations, together with the unlawful efficiency of an abortion and training drugs and not using a license, the previous of which is a second-degree felony, the workplace of Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton introduced.
If convicted, Rojas will serve between two and 20 years in jail and be topic to a nice of $10,000, per state regulation. Nonetheless, Paxton’s workplace famous that he has the authority to hunt a nice of at the very least $100,000 “per violation” beneath the Texas Human Life Safety Act of 2021.
Paxton’s workplace mentioned it had additionally filed a brief restraining order to shut Rojas’ clinics.
“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.”
In 2022, the Supreme Court docket’s conservative majority voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, clearing the best way for state-by-state bans and the erasure of a assured reproductive proper that had been in place for many years. Since then, there have been few legal expenses issued in reference to the extra restrictive laws, making Rojas one of many first within the nation.
Earlier this 12 months, a New York physician was indicted on expenses that she illegally prescribed abortion drugs on-line to a affected person in Louisiana.
