Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he has closed three illegal abortion clinics operating in the Houston metropolitan area.
Mr. Paxton, a Republican, said a federal court judge granted him a temporary restraining order shuttering Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in the town of Waller, Clinica Latinoamericana Telge in Cypress and Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring as his office probes violations of state abortion restrictions enacted in 2021 and 2022.
The order also bars Maria Rojas, a 48-year-old midwife known as “Dr. Maria” who operated the clinics with a staff of unlicensed medical providers, from offering further medical services at them.
“This is a critical win in our fight to uphold Texas law, protect the unborn, and protect all Texans from dangerous clinics practicing medicine without a license,” Mr. Paxton said. “Rojas and her network of illegal clinics operated with blatant disregard for the law, putting people’s lives at risk.”
Mr. Paxton’s office announced this week that it arrested Ms. Rojas and 29-year-old Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, a Cuban national paroled by the Biden administration for entering the U.S. illegally, on felony charges of performing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without a license.
As part of the same investigation, the attorney general said 54-year-old Rubildo Labanino Matos was arrested on March 8 as he returned to the U.S. from Cuba. Mr. Matos, a nurse practitioner whose license is currently on probation with the state’s Board of Nursing, faces charges of conspiracy to practice medicine without a license.
The attorney general’s office has accused Mr. Ley of assisting Ms. Rojas “in providing at least one illegal abortion” at the clinic in Waller.
The Washington Times has been unable to reach Ms. Rojas for comment. Phone calls to her three clinics went unanswered this week and it was unclear whether she or her colleagues have legal representation.
Mr. Paxton’s office noted Monday that a Texas law signed in 2021 allows the attorney general to punish “abortion providers — not patients” with criminal charges for violating a ban on most procedures after six weeks of pregnancy.
In late 2021, the Supreme Court allowed Texas to ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. After the high court overturned the national right to an abortion in June 2022, the state passed a stricter ban with a limited exception for the life of the mother.
Mr. Paxton’s office has pledged to prosecute the case using a part of the 2021 law, which authorizes him to seek civil penalties of at least $100,000 per abortion performed at the venues. Its Law Enforcement Division is conducting an ongoing investigation into the number of abortions that took place at the clinics.
Pro-choice groups this week condemned the widening probe into illegal abortion clinics, which pro-life advocates have cheered.
Lexi White, director of state strategies at the abortion advocacy group All* Above All, said the targeting of Hispanic-run clinics highlights how abortion restrictions target low-income and minority clinics with “state-sanctioned violence.”
“Fighting back against the criminalization of abortion access encapsulates why it is so important to view abortion justice through an intersectional lens,” Ms. White said.
State Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican who oversaw the first Trump administration’s pro-life policies as chief of staff of the Department of Health and Human Services, praised Mr. Paxton in a phone call on Thursday.
“I’m very grateful to see the attorney general enforce Texas’ pro-life laws,” said Mr. Harrison, who represents a suburban district south of Dallas and has voted consistently for abortion restrictions.
