Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton launched a press release Monday boasting concerning the arrest of a Houston-area midwife for illegally performing an abortion, marking the state’s first legal cost for abortion since its near-total ban was carried out in 2022.
The morally corrupt Paxton alleged that the midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, “owned and operated multiple clinics” round Houston, together with two in Texas’ most populous county, Harris County.
The assertion stated that Rojas was charged with performing an unlawful abortion and working towards medication and not using a license. The previous cost is a second-degree felony, which comes with a possible sentence of as much as 20 years in jail.
Certainly one of Rojas’ staff, Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, was additionally arrested for a similar offenses, Paxton’s workplace introduced on Tuesday.
“In Texas, life is sacred. 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,” Paxton stated. “Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable.”
In accordance with The Texas Tribune, Rojas, who recognized herself as “Dr. Maria,” and Ley tried to carry out an abortion on somebody recognized as E.G. twice in March. In a separate bail movement, the state additionally alleged that Rojas carried out an abortion in Harris County earlier this yr.
The results for Rojas may very well be extreme, with Texas legislation rising the penalty for performing an abortion to a lifetime in jail. Rojas additionally dangers getting her medical license revoked.
Equally, Ley will probably be intensely scrutinized, particularly since court docket data point out that Ley just isn’t an American citizen, however a citizen of Cuba.
“Individuals killing unborn babies by performing illegal abortions in Texas will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and I will not rest until justice is served. I will continue to fight to protect life and work to ensure that anyone guilty of violating our state’s pro-life laws is held accountable,” Paxton stated on Tuesday.
Texas has one of many nation’s most excessive abortion legal guidelines, although it’s removed from the one state with a ban. Notably, Texas has been on the forefront of draconian abortion restrictions, with its legislation being launched to the state’s GOP-dominated legislature even earlier than Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.
Underneath present legislation, Texas solely permits abortions in excessive circumstances—and even then it isn’t assured. In 2023, Kate Cox of Texas was denied an abortion even after she obtained a deadly fetal analysis, for which her physician stated she wanted an abortion to protect her well being and future fertility. As Paxton’s workplace threatened felony prices towards any supplier who dared to assist her, Cox was pressured to depart the state to obtain the abortion care she wanted.
Since then, Texas Republicans’ views on abortion have solely gotten extra excessive.
In December, Paxton’s workplace sued a New York physician for prescribing an abortion capsule to a Texas resident. And forward of this yr’s legislative session, a Texas lawmaker filed a invoice that may reclassify abortion capsules as managed substances, although the measure nonetheless has not gained any traction.
A pal of Rojas’ informed The New York Instances that she was shocked by information of the arrest.
“She was on her way to the clinic and got pulled over by the police at gunpoint and handcuffed. She said they wouldn’t tell her what was happening. She said they took her to Austin,” fellow midwife Holly Shearman stated
Shearman, who recognized herself as a conservative, stated she didn’t “believe the charges” towards Rojas.
“She never, ever talked about anything like that, and she’s very Catholic,” she stated.
However, as feminist author Jessica Valenti identified, Paxton’s workplace is more likely to paint Rojas as a villain, whatever the fact.
That is considerably laughable coming from Paxton, of all folks, who was impeached by the Texas Home in Could 2023 after he was accused of abusing his energy to assist a pal and political donor. He was later acquitted by the Texas Senate.
You’d suppose that Paxton would have larger issues to fret about, however, after all, he has his sights set on interesting to conservative voters by prosecuting a neighborhood midwife—and even operating for the U.S. Senate.
