A midwife in Texas could face up to 20 years in prison for providing reproductive health care in the state, which has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. The arrest of Maria Margarita Rojas marks the first criminal case against an alleged abortion provider in Texas since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 — and a major escalation in the far right’s war against bodily autonomy.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday that Rojas, 48, had been arrested on charges of providing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without a license. One of her employees, Jose Ley, was also arrested for providing an abortion and practicing without a license. Providing an abortion in Texas is punishable by up to life in prison and up to $100,000 in civil fines.
That’s reasonable, but it’s a red herring. Many states enable midwives to perform abortion care.
Apparently it’s not a red herring in Texas though. Just depends on how the laws are written there, how much a midwife can do or not.
Bottom line, if you’re not legally cleared to do the procedure, then you should be arrested if you do the procedure.
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This abortion would have been illegal regardless of who performed the procedure due to Texas’ bans on abortion. In states like Texas, women have died when doctors have been confident of the medical necessity of an abortion, but unclear of their legal clearance. This isn’t a doctors vs midwives issue.
Legalistic fuckery aside: