Texas Abortion Arrests Prompt Judge to Close Health Clinics (1)

A Texas civil court judge has barred a Houston-area midwife from providing medical services following her arrest this week on charges of performing an illegal abortion.

A temporary restraining order from Judge Gary Chaney of Waller County closes three clinics operated by Maria Rojas. Chaney’s order, which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced Thursday, also sets a temporary injunction hearing for March 27.

This arrest and two others appear to be the first in Texas under the state’s post-Roe abortion laws that prohibit pregnancy terminations except in limited circumstances to protect the health of the mother.

The arrests could be taken to show the state’s abortion ban is encouraging unlicensed providers to fill the void of licensed providers to create “a dangerous, deadly black market,” said Austin Kaplan, of Kaplan Law Firm PLLC, who has challenged Texas’ near total abortion ban in court on behalf of Texas women who couldn’t terminate complicated pregnancies. “I don’t know that that’s what this is, but there are very concerning facts in the affidavit,” he said.

Rojas, 49, and her employee, Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, 29, were arrested March 17 for performing an illegal abortion and practicing medicine without a license. Rojas and Ley are being held in jail on $1.4 million bail and $700,000 bail, respectively.

Rubildo Labanino Matos, a 54 year-old nurse practitioner, was arrested March 8 and charged with conspiracy to practice medicine without a license. He is accused of letting Ley use his credentials on medical paperwork to provide clinical services.

Paxton for the most part can’t pursue criminal investigations on his own without a referral from a local prosecutor. Waller County District Attorney Sean Whittmore (R), who previously tried cases as an attorney in Paxton’s office, referred the investigation to Paxton, who is expected to lead the prosecution of the cases.

John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, said the referral is significant because district attorneys in large, left-leaning counties are unlikely to prosecute abortion as a crime, limiting Paxton and the state to civil liabilities until now.

Texas law provides for charging a person with a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison for administering a successful abortion. However, if the abortion fails, the charge is a second-degree felony—carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Rojas and Ley face the lesser felony charge.

Unlicensed Advice Alleged

A woman who spoke with investigators, listed in court records as E.G., said she visited Rojas’ clinic on March 1 after her gynecologist in Mexico recommended she see a local doctor in the Houston area for advice on a high-risk pregnancy.

During the appointment, an employee identifying herself as a gynecologist that investigators say is Rojas drew the woman’s blood, she told investigators. Two days later, the woman and her husband returned to the clinic to view the lab results, which indicated the pregnancy was unlikely to be successful, she said.

Acting on the advice of a person she wrongly believed to be a licensed physician, the woman proceeded to end the pregnancy, she said, adding that without the advice she would have continued with the pregnancy.

The woman paid the clinic $1,320 for three visits, court records say.

Relying on a complaint to the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, investigators say Rojas performed elective abortions on two other patients in September 2023 and January 2025 that weren’t due to medical complications.

Texas in 2022 began banning all abortions except in limited instances to protect the mother’s health.

However, the alleged conduct of Rojas and Ley would’ve been illegal even prior to it because neither is a doctor, and Texas has long held that only a physician can perform an abortion. The state’s ban does add to the charges and could lead to longer sentences if either is found guilty.

Paxton charged Rojas and Ley with practicing medicine without a license, a third-degree felony, which he supports in court records with evidence his office says shows the clinic also treated an injured construction worker and others in need of non-pregnancy care at one of Rojas’ three clinics.

Rojas was taken into custody March 6. A search of her vehicle uncovered 29 pills of Misoprostol, a drug commonly used to stop a pregnancy, investigators say.

Another person named Sabiel Bosch Gongoro is listed as a suspect in the affidavit but hasn’t been charged. Investigators says they believe he’s engaging in the unlicensed practice of medicine.

The case is Texas v. Rojas, Tex. Dist. Ct., No. CV-25-03-0062, order 3/18/25.