Houston midwife accused of illegal abortions faces 15 felony charges

The Texas midwife arrested earlier this year for performing illegal abortions has now been charged with 15 felonies, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Key Takeaways:

• Maria Rojas, a Texas midwife arrested in March for committing illegal abortions, has officially been indicted with 15 felony charges.

• Rojas is accused of three counts of performing an abortion and 12 counts of practicing medicine without a license.

The Details:

According to the Houston Chronicle, Rojas was indicted by a grand jury on three counts of performing an abortion and 12 counts of practicing medicine without a license; though the indictments were given in June, they were only recently made public.

The indictment shows that Rojas is accused of illegally giving abortion pills to a woman identified as E.G. She is also accused of performing an abortion on another woman, N.M.; the Chronicle reports that in that case, unlike the case of E.G., the indictment specifies that "the unborn child died."

According to the Chronicle:

"The 12 counts of practicing medicine without a license accuse Rojas of hiring nine different employees at Clinica Waller Latinoamericana, a medical clinic on U.S. 290 in Waller County. In each of the counts, Rojas is accused of hiring the employees to treat, diagnose and prescribe medication without being a licensed physician."

The Backstory:

In March, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the arrest of Rojas, who had allegedly been committing illegal abortions and illegally operating a network of abortion businesses in the Northwest Houston area.

An investigation revealed that Rojas owned, operated, and committed abortions at multiple facilities under the names Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller, Clinica Latinoamericana Telge in Cypress, and Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring.

Following the investigation and Rojas' arrest, several of those facilities were shut down, while the state Department of Licensing and Regulation suspended Rojas' license. Two men, Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, 29, and Rubildo Labanino Matos, 54, were later arrested and charged with assisting Rojas in her abortion operations.

Zoom Out:

Texas law prohibits nearly all abortions — and the state's actions show it is serious about protecting preborn lives.

In addition to cracking down on illegal abortion operations, it has also recently passed legislation to prohibit the mailing of abortion pills into the state and another bill to prohibit the taxpayer funding of abortion travel for its citizens.