HOUSTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday the arrests of eight people he says are connected to a midwife who allegedly provided abortions in the Houston area.
The midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, was arrested back in March for allegedly providing illegal abortions and illegally operating a network of clinics in northwest Houston.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Rojas was indicted in Waller County on 15 felony counts, including three counts of performing an abortion and 12 counts of practicing medicine without a license. A court order has prohibited Rojas and the clinics she owns from practicing medicine while the case proceeds.
“These dens of fake doctors will not be allowed to operate in Texas. Those responsible will be held accountable. I will always protect innocent life and use every tool to enforce Texas’s pro-life laws,” Paxton said in a news release on Wednesday.
The eight individuals who are accused of practicing medicine without a license are Yaimara Hernandez Alvarez, Alina Valeron Leon, Dalia Coromoto Yanez, Yhonder Lebrun Acosta, Liunet Grandales Estrada, Gerardo Otero Aguero, Sabiel Bosch Gongora and Jose Manuel Cendan Ley.
Ley was arrested back in March and had been accused of practicing medicine without a license and allegedly performing an abortion. Nurse practitioner Rubildo Labanino Matos was also arrested at that time for allegedly practicing medicine without a license.
Paxton said that Rojas is the first person to be charged under the state’s new abortion law, which bans the procedure except in some medical emergencies. The Texas Legislature passed the “Life of the Mother Act” this year, which sought to clarify exceptions to the state’s abortion law when the mother’s life is at risk.