Waller County \u2013 A Texas appeals court has reversed a temporary injunction that shut down a Houston-area midwife\u2019s clinics amid allegations that she performed illegal abortions and practiced medicine without a license.<\/p>\n
In a memorandum opinion issued Thursday, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals found the state did not present sufficient admissible evidence to justify the injunction against Maria Margarita Rojas and her affiliated clinics.<\/p>\n
However, the three-judge panel emphasized that its ruling does not determine whether the allegations against Rojas are true.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the suit underlying this interlocutory appeal involves allegations that the appellants, a licensed midwife and a group of associated clinics, performed illegal abortions and practiced medicine without a license, this opinion does not decide whether those acts occurred,\u201d Justice Scott Field wrote.<\/p>\n
Instead, the court found the Waller County trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits from Rojas\u2019 separate criminal case during the civil injunction hearing.<\/p>\n
The appeals court reversed the injunction and sent the civil case back to the trial court for further proceedings.<\/p>\n
Court finds affidavits should not have been admitted<\/p>\n
The Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office began investigating Rojas and the clinics in 2025 after receiving an anonymous email alleging that abortions had been performed at one of the locations.<\/p>\n
Investigators later obtained arrest and search warrants supported by probable-cause affidavits prepared by Lt. Edward Wilkerson with the Attorney General\u2019s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.<\/p>\n
Three days after Rojas\u2019 arrest, the state filed a separate civil lawsuit seeking penalties and temporary and permanent injunctions. The lawsuit accused Rojas and the clinics of violating the Texas Human Life Protection Act by performing or attempting to perform abortions and the Texas Medical Practice Act by practicing medicine without a license.<\/p>\n
During the temporary-injunction hearing, the state introduced the arrest warrants and probable-cause affidavits from the criminal investigation. Rojas\u2019 attorneys objected, arguing the affidavits contained hearsay and could not be used to prove the state was entitled to an injunction.<\/p>\n
The appeals court agreed, pointing to a longstanding Texas rule that affidavits generally cannot be used as evidence to support a temporary injunction unless both sides agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, the State does not contend, and the record does not reveal, that the parties reached an agreement to allow for the admission of the affidavits,\u201d the court wrote.<\/p>\n
The judges found that once the affidavits were removed from consideration, the remaining evidence did not reasonably support the state\u2019s allegations that abortions had been performed at the clinics.<\/p>\n
Rojas was the state\u2019s only witness during the injunction hearing. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to substantive questions.<\/p>\n
While a judge can draw a negative inference from someone invoking the Fifth Amendment in a civil case, the appeals court found that Rojas\u2019 decision not to answer questions was not enough on its own to support a finding that she or the clinics performed abortions.<\/p>\n
The state also pointed to clinic website printouts advertising \u201cDoctor Examination\u201d and \u201cProcedures and Minor Surgeries.\u201d However, the court found the state\u2019s lawsuit alleged only that Rojas violated the Medical Practice Act by performing abortions without a physician\u2019s license\u2014not that the website or other services constituted separate violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe conclude that the trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits from a related but separate criminal case and that the remaining evidence is insufficient to reasonably support the existence of a probable right of recovery,\u201d the court wrote.<\/p>\n
Clinics were ordered to remain closed in 2025<\/p>\n
A Waller County judge issued the temporary injunction in March 2025, preventing Rojas and the clinics from practicing medicine or performing abortions in violation of state law while the civil case continued.<\/p>\n