The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) has suspended the midwifery license of Maria Margarita Rojas, a Houston-area midwife accused of performing illegal abortions and operating clinics without a license.
According to TDLR spokesperson Tela Mange, Rojas allegedly presented herself as a gynecologist without a medical license while making “terminal medical decisions for pregnant clients” — actions that fall “outside the scope of practice for midwives in Texas.”
“We felt it was important to take action now in suspending her midwifery license,” Mange said.
Rojas received her midwifery license in July 2018, according to TDLR’s website. It was initially set to expire in 2026. Mange added that the state agency was also investigating the allegations.
Rojas and another clinic employee, Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, were arrested last week after being accused of performing unlawful abortions at three Houston-area clinics, which have since been temporarily shut down after a request from the state Attorney General. A third individual, a nurse practitioner named Rubildo Labanino Matos, was also arrested in connection to the AG’s investigation and charged with conspiracy to practice medicine without a license.
According to court documents, the investigation began after Texas Health and Human Services received a complaint from an unnamed person who reported that the clinic workers were “performing abortions for some side money.” The complaint alleged that two women received abortions from one of the clinics in Waller; one woman was allegedly three months pregnant and the other was allegedly eight weeks pregnant, according to court records.
Outlined in the complaint, the unnamed person reported that the “abortions were not for any medical complications; they were both made for irresponsibility of not wanting to protect themselves using birth control.”
The case reportedly marks the first arrests to come from the state’s near-total abortion ban. Under this ban, performing an abortion is a second-degree felony offense. Rojas is facing two counts in connection to the alleged abortions, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison for each charge.