Texas Charges a Midwife in the First Arrest Under the State’s Abortion Ban 

Monday Monday Attorney General Texas Ken Pasta announced Houston’s midwife’s arrest Maria Margarita Rohas for alleged abortion assistance as part of an extreme state ban and “illegally” managing the clinic network. The age of 48 was charged with a second-degree crime, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, as well as practicing medicine without a license, which may mean a decade of imprisonment and a fine of $ 10,000. Two colleagues of Rohas, Jose Lei, 29, and Rubilda Labanin Matos, 54 years old, nurse, were also arrested In connection with the investigation of Pokstan.

The arrests note the first criminal cases under the abortion ban, and it seems to be the first criminal arrests in the forbidden state, as the US Supreme Court Conservative Block has canceled Rooe v. Wade In 2022.

Despite the fact that in Texas there is a significant increase in deaths related to pregnancy and almost death, as well as an increase in infant mortality, after the implementation of its almost total ban on abortion in 2021, Podista claimed that the state perceived “life” as “holy” in its statement that announced. “I will always do everything that depends on me to protect the unborn, protect the laws on the life of our country and work to make unlicensed people who threaten women’s lives, performing illegal abortions,” Poda added. “The Texas law that protects life is clear, and we will attract those who violate its accountable.”

Texas complies with one of the strict laws on abortion in a country that does not offer allocation of rape, incest, or serious fetal disorders. The fuzzy language of the state about what an extraordinary incident causes fear among doctors who want to avoid large fines and imprisonment and made some threatening care or not interfere in life -threatening situations, chaos and chaos and chaos and Tragedy on pregnant Texasthe life of which threatened the danger after refusal Loss of reproductive organs.

Flooding of the terrible and painful consequences from the ban on extreme abortions did not refuse: the law 2021 directly led to a to a to a Increasing the death of infants at the time Last analysis by Propublica It turned out that after the first prohibition of the state, the sepsis rates increased more than 50 percent for patients who survived pregnancy loss in the second trimester in Texas hospitals. This fall, Propublica It was also reported about what they had long been afraid and expected medical professionals who saw Maternal mortality rate Sharping rise: Three pregnant women died Once the doctors have expected to treat their miscarriages. Interviewed medical experts concluded that their death could be prevented.

Obstetricians such as Rojas usually offer holistic reproductive care during pregnancy, childbirth, delivery and after delivery. Some patients may require abortion and abortion care, but under the ban on the state, the obstetricians were forced to navigate a policy that increases the risk to the health and well -being of patients. And since the prohibitions push more Texans to forced pregnancy and the potential for additional complications, the need for abortion care is not dissipated: despite the restrictions, Thousands of people In the forbidden states continued to order Pills for abortion online or left out of the state for care.

Rohas allegedly “tried an abortion” per person who is experiencing a non -viable pregnancy defined as “for example”, giving them a pill for abortion twice in March; It was first arrested on March 6 for allegedly practicing medicine without a license and gave a bond of $ 10,000. Rohas’s friend tells the media What, when Rohas was arrested earlier this month, going to one of her clinics, she was “pulled up at the sight and handcuffed,” and the police “did not tell her what was happening.” While the state suggested that Rojas, and ley are being held on a staggering bond of $ 1 million, a local judge put a $ 500,000 figure for abortion, and $ 200,000 for medical licensing. It is expected that the case will head a large jury to consider the accusation.

Texas Attorney General is not the right to comply with criminal law, but he can do so if the local prosecutor requires it. In this case, the Pokstan coordinated the allegations with the help of the Conservative Prosecutor Waller Schoen Whittmor, which – Note The cabinet of Potzna addressed him with the case two months ago, after a complaint was filed with the Texas Commission on Health and Human Services; Later, investigators began to survey the clinic. Whittmore is a Pokstan who worked in the Prosecutor General in Houston and appointed AG special prosecutor.

Although shockingly, the news for those in Texas feels painfully inevitable. Aggressive against abortion AG states invariably increases its threats against abortion providers. In 2023, when a 31-year-old woman from a non-viable pregnancy Required care of an emergency abortionPokstan threatened to pursue “hospitals, doctors or anyone else“Who will help in providing the procedure. He are suing the court to court Biden’s administration when she pushed to this Act on emergency medical treatment and labor– Federal law designed to protect the ambulance – will be applied to abortion in the states that banned assistance. And last year he brought the charge Evasion from Hipaa’s laws To access medical documents outside the abortion. Recently Podda has filed civil lawsuit Against the New York, Dr. Margaret Carpenter, allegedly for sending drugs that causes abortion to a Northern Texas woman. (Texas Judge fined a $ 100,000 carpenter’s fines Louisiana officials accused her on criminal liability. The governor of New York Katiel watched the law, opposed the attempts to extract the doctor. Despite the charges, doctors in abortion states Continue help Those who are forbidden to access pills with telemedicine.)

Arrests can still lead to cold impact on all medical professionals in the state, and of course their patients, says Dr. Gasaleh Moaidi, a long -time ABS, who offered abortion care before the prohibitions. The last step is the continuation of the zealous Crusade of Pokstan and other state officials to punish and cause fear among those who offer – or receives – a full range of support for reproductive care, she says.

“Working medical professionals – from midwives, to Dulas, to nurses – are crucial for patients in Texas, especially under these draconian abortions, and for which thousands and thousands provide safe reproductive care,” says Maoei, who also serves as chairman of the council. “Although some details of the case remain in question, it is clear that it is an attempt to scare people who need abortion and those who provide them.”

Moayadi also believes that arrests seem to be a purposeful attack with possible anti -immigration sentiment. In A press -releasePokstan claims that Lei “entered the United States in 2022” and was curiously inserted by the fact that Matos was arrested after returning to the United States from Cuba. Have her three Latin American clinic Location, Rojas-which was born in Peru and engaged in obstetrics before immigrating in the US, “excludes inexpensive medical services for a great deal of Hispanic customers with low income.

Communities of immigrants face steep barriers to healthcare, including increased risk of criminalization based on citizenship status. Traveling from a care state may mean the risk of detention, family separation or deportation.

“It is not surprising to me that the first person arrested under these accusations is a woman, midwife and a colored person serving the immigrant communities,” Moaydi says. “This says that the Poder is aimed at a person who is for the Hispanic community against the backdrop of crossing state and antimigration extremism.”

Local activist D’Aandro Willis, from the center of the AFA, Northern Texas on Reproductive Justice, repeats the view, saying that the arrest of Rahas is a strike at the heart of color communities, which historically relied on the midwives as an alternative to institutional route. She notes that the US has a long history Error and smearing the midwives.

“The midwife is not just a health practice, it is a cultural and fundamental practice for people in color,” Willis says. “For a good reason, the traditional health care system sowed distrust among these communities, and the midwives still trust the allies for those of us who are marginalized or deviated under these typical conditions.”

Its organization works with several midwives to help customers through their pregnancy: from prenatal visits to work. “For them, after these arrests now there is even more fear of the unknown,” Willis says. “But, unfortunately, we are all in the space of reproductive rights here in Texas, for a long time living under great fear. We will continue to do our work and stop no matter what.”

While the case progresses and the potential to obtain additional arrests associated with abortion in Texas and elsewhere Setting up pills for abortionMoayedi calls on the public critical of the framing – and any information that goes directly from state and law enforcement agencies as Pod.

“It is important to remember not to play and blindly buy authoritarian and against abortion when it comes to such accusations,” she says. “We must keep in mind this basic truth, especially in these horrific times: all innocent is not yet guilty.”