(NewsNation) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a Houston-area midwife has been arrested and charged with providing an abortion as part of a crackdown on clinics that are alleged to provide abortion services.
Maria Margarita Rojas, 48, also known as “Dr. Maria,” is also charged with practicing medicine without a license.
Investigators allege Rojas owned several clinics and employed unlicensed individuals who posed as medical professionals. The Texas attorney general’s office also filed for a temporary restraining order to shut down the clinics.
“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 said.
Rojas has been accused of providing illegal abortions, and online court records show the date of the offense as Mar. 5, 2025.
Rojas was taken into custody the following day and released a day later on a $10,000 bond.
Texas has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, only allowing the procedure to be performed if the mother’s life is at stake. New legislation has been proposed in the state that would clarify when abortions can be performed in an emergency after reports of women dying or suffering serious complications because doctors waited to perform an abortion because their condition was not immediately life-threatening.
Under Texas law, abortion providers can face up to 99 years in prison and civil penalties of at least $100,000 per violation.