Midwife Maria Margarita Rojas, of Houston, has been arrested on charges of performing illegal abortions. She is the first person indicted under Texas’ near-total abortion ban in violation of the Texas Human Life Protection Act of 2021. Accused of performing abortions without a license, Rojas ran clandestine clinics in the Houston suburbs. Pro-life groups praised the arrest as the affair reignited the debate over abortion restrictions in the state.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “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 who endanger women’s lives by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted.” He added that, “The Texas law protecting life is clear and we will hold those who violate it accountable”.
Paxton also pointed out that abortions are banned in Texas except under certain circumstances, such as saving the life of a pregnant woman. Meanwhile, some “pro-life” protesters, such as the group Texas Right to Life, demonstrated in favor of arresting midwife Rojas. However, not everyone in Texas agrees with those who oppose abortion: on May 14, 2022, numerous protesters for abortion rights joined demonstrations nationwide.
Just one year earlier, in September 2021, 28-year-old Josseli Barnica died of septicemia because hospital doctors said it would be a “crime” to intervene in her miscarriage. Josseli was 17 weeks pregnant when the abortion occurred, as the doctors themselves noted in medical records. At that point, they should have suggested speeding up the delivery or performing a curettage to avoid a life-threatening infection, but they did nothing, for fear of the state’s restrictive laws prohibiting all forms of abortion. For this reason, some doctors decided to leave the state and move elsewhere to continue their profession. The news had been brought to light by ProPublica, the nonprofit news organization specializing in investigative journalism in the public interest. This was the third case publicized by ProPublica about women who died from lack of medical care during pregnancy. But that’s not all. In 2023, at least 100 minors had to travel outside the state of Texas to terminate a pregnancy, including six 11-year-old girls. The fact highlights the dramatic consequences of a law that makes no exceptions even in cases of fetal malformation, rape or incest.
