{"id":383989,"date":"2026-07-23T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/383989\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:15:08","slug":"houston-area-midwife-wins-court-ruling-in-texas-abortion-ban-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/383989\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston-area midwife wins court ruling in Texas abortion ban case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas appeals court on Thursday tossed out an injunction against a Houston-area midwife accused of providing illegal abortions, saying Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office hasn\u2019t presented any direct evidence that she violated the state\u2019s ban.<\/p>\n

The ruling by the all Republican Texas 15th Court of Appeals said a lower court\u2019s decision to temporarily shut down Maria Rojas\u2019 clinics \u201cabused its discretion,\u201d and that the state\u2019s case relied on \u201cprobable-cause\u201d affidavits centering on an anonymous email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the probable-cause affidavits, the remaining evidence in the record does not reasonably support the State\u2019s allegations that abortions have been performed at the Clinics,\u201d Justice Scott Field wrote in his opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rojas is the first person in the state to stand trial for allegedly violating Texas\u2019 abortion ban, which took effect in 2022. She also faces charges for practicing medicine without a license.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ruling only applies to the injunction, and Rojas\u2019 case determining if she violated the abortion ban will proceed, along with the cases of eight other people who worked at her clinics and face similar charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paxton has previously touted the case as he seeks office in the U.S. Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis network of clinics illegally aborted unborn children and practiced medicine without a license, intentionally deceiving and endangering the communities they claimed to serve,\u201d he said in a release<\/a> about the previous injunction ruling. His office didn\u2019t immediately comment on the ruling Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Rojas, said even without the injunction Rojas won\u2019t likely be able to reopen the clinics, which have been closed for more than a year. Still, they considered the ruling a win, calling it a \u201csignificant step towards justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of Texas has no case,\u201d said Jenna Hudson, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is defending Rojas. \u201cMaria Rojas has been an upstanding midwife who delivered babies and provided lawful care for underserved pregnant patients.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rojas is a licensed midwife who owned and operated several clinics in Harris and Waller counties. Paxton\u2019s office is alleging that she gave women abortion medication, which Rojas\u2019 attorneys say is only supported by an anonymous tip and the observations of one Medicaid fraud investigator who staked out a clinic. Abortion medication has some legal uses, including treatment of miscarriages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas appeals court on Thursday tossed out an injunction against a Houston-area midwife accused of providing illegal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[933,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-383989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-austinlatest","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}