A Texas appeals court on Thursday said Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office had not provided enough evidence to warrant an injunction against a Houston-area midwife accused of providing illegal abortions.
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The 15th Court of Appeals said the state did not provide “sufficient evidence” to the trial court for it to issue a temporary injunction and temporarily shut down Maria Rojas’ clinics.
The three-judge panel said that because the state and Rojas did not come to an agreement to allow “probable-cause” affidavits into evidence during the injunction hearing, those affidavits should not have been allowed to be admitted and the trial court “abused its discretion” by letting them into evidence.
What they’re saying:
“We conclude that the trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits from a related but separate criminal case and that the remaining evidence is insufficient to reasonably support the existence of a probable right of recovery,” Justice Scott Field wrote. “Consequently, because the trial court abused its discretion in granting temporary injunctive relief, we reverse the trial court’s temporary-injunction order and remand to the trial court for further proceedings.”
Rojas is the first person in Texas to be charged with violating the state’s abortion ban. She’s also facing charges of practicing medicine without a license.
She was held in jail for 10 days on a $1.4 million bond last year and remains under electronic monitoring, with her midwifery license suspended.
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The attorney general’s office has also arrested eight other individuals in connection with the clinics, which Paxton has referred to as an “illegal cabal” of unlicensed providers.
What’s next:
The Center for Reproductive Rights, who represents Rojas, said even with the injunction it’s unlikely that Rojas’ clinics will be able to reopen.
“The state of Texas has no case. Maria Rojas has been an upstanding midwife who delivered babies and provided lawful care for underserved pregnant patients,” Jenna Hudson, Senior Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said. “Pregnant Texans are dying at alarming rates. The state should be doing everything it can to make sure they can get the health care they need, not shutting down desperately needed health care providers based on trumped-up evidence and a shoddy investigation. It will now be nearly impossible to re-open these clinics. Maria Rojas deserves justice, and we will keep fighting.”
Rojas owned and operated several clinics in Harris and Waller counties. The attorney general’s office claims she provided abortion medications to women. Rojas’ attorneys, during the appeal hearing, said that misoprostol is a common medication used by midwives for managing miscarriage care and labor and not exclusively an abortion medication.
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