Category: AbortionBan

Texas makes first arrest under state’s terrifying abortion ban

Posted on by Alex Samuels

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement Monday boasting about the arrest of a Houston-area midwife for illegally performing an abortion, marking the state’s first criminal charge for abortion since its near-total ban was implemented in 2022.

The morally corrupt Paxton alleged that the midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, “owned and operated multiple clinics” around Houston, including two in Texas’ most populous county, Harris County. 

The statement said that Rojas was charged with performing an illegal abortion and practicing medicine without a license. The former charge is a second-degree felony, which comes with a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

One of Rojas’ employees, Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, was also arrested for the same offenses, Paxton’s office announced on Tuesday. 

“In Texas, life is sacred. I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our state’s pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted,” Paxton said. “Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable.”

According to The Texas Tribune, Rojas, who identified herself as “Dr. Maria,” and Ley attempted to perform an abortion on someone identified as E.G. twice in March. In a separate bail motion, the state also alleged that Rojas performed an abortion in Harris County earlier this year.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

The consequences for Rojas could be severe, with Texas law increasing the penalty for performing an abortion to a lifetime in prison. Rojas also risks getting her medical license revoked.

Similarly, Ley will likely be intensely scrutinized, especially since court records indicate that Ley is not an American citizen, but a citizen of Cuba.

“Individuals killing unborn babies by performing illegal abortions in Texas will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and I will not rest until justice is served. I will continue to fight to protect life and work to ensure that anyone guilty of violating our state’s pro-life laws is held accountable,” Paxton said on Tuesday.

Texas has one of the nation’s most extreme abortion laws, though it’s far from the only state with a ban. Notably, Texas has been at the forefront of draconian abortion restrictions, with its law being introduced to the state’s GOP-dominated legislature even before Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.

Under current law, Texas only permits abortions in extreme circumstances—and even then it isn’t guaranteed. In 2023, Kate Cox of Texas was denied an abortion even after she received a lethal fetal diagnosis, for which her doctor said she needed an abortion to preserve her health and future fertility. As Paxton’s office threatened felony charges against any provider who dared to help her, Cox was forced to leave the state to receive the abortion care she needed.

Since then, Texas Republicans’ views on abortion have only gotten more extreme. 

In December, Paxton’s office sued a New York doctor for prescribing an abortion pill to a Texas resident. And ahead of this year’s legislative session, a Texas lawmaker filed a bill that would reclassify abortion pills as controlled substances, though the measure still has not gained any traction.

A friend of Rojas’ told The New York Times that she was shocked by news of the arrest.

“She was on her way to the clinic and got pulled over by the police at gunpoint and handcuffed. She said they wouldn’t tell her what was happening. She said they took her to Austin,” fellow midwife Holly Shearman said.

Shearman, who identified herself as a conservative, said she didn’t “believe the charges” against Rojas. 

“She never, ever talked about anything like that, and she’s very Catholic,” she said.

But, as feminist writer Jessica Valenti pointed out, Paxton’s office is likely to paint Rojas as a villain, regardless of the truth. 

This is somewhat laughable coming from Paxton, of all people, who was impeached by the Texas House in May 2023 after he was accused of abusing his power to help a friend and political donor. He was later acquitted by the Texas Senate.

You’d think that Paxton would have bigger things to worry about, but, of course, he has his sights set on appealing to conservative voters by prosecuting a local midwife—or even running for the U.S. Senate.

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‘Misled the American people’: AOC calls out Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on lying about abortion views

Posted on by Aysha Qamar

As the country continues to process the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion legal nationwide, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the Senate Monday to question whether Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath about their views on the case.

During their Senate confirmation hearings, both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said that they viewed Roe v. Wade as a settled “precedent” that had been “reaffirmed many times.” However, when the time came to uphold that precedent and vote, the two thought otherwise.

Ocasio-Cortez joined with Rep. Ted Lieu to write a letter to the Senate asking them to investigate whether Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee in order to become confirmed.

"Multiple Supreme Court Justices misled the American people during their confirmation hearings about their views on Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood," Ocasio-Cortez and Lieu said in the letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "At least two of them, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, directly lied to Senators.

"We respect the right of individual Justices to have their own views on various constitutional issues," the letter continued. "But we cannot have a system where Justices lie about their views in order to get confirmed. That makes a mockery of the confirmation power, and of the separation of powers."

We cannot allow Supreme Court nominees lying and/or misleading the Senate under oath to go unanswered. Both GOP & Dem Senators stated SCOTUS justices misled them. This cannot be accepted as precedent. Doing so erodes rule of law, delegitimizes the court, and imperils democracy. https://t.co/yZW6BKnqFG

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 11, 2022

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Following their vote in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which overturned Roe v. Wade, several lawmakers who voted to confirm Gorsuch in 2017 and Kavanaugh in 2018 expressed concern at the consequential outcome, saying they felt misled by the two justices, Business Insider reported.

”This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon," Sen. Susan Collins, an abortion rights supporter, said in a statement.

"I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans," Sen. Joe Manchin said in a statement. While personally against abortion, Manchin supports legislation to protect abortion rights.

The letter isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez questioned the SCOTUS justices lying during their respected confirmations.

In her argument that the two lied, Ocasio-Cortez emphasized the point that even Republicans who supported Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were shocked by their recent votes. She added that lying under oath is a serious offense that she believes calls for impeachment.

"To allow that to stand is to allow it to happen," Ocasio-Cortez told NBC News on June 26. "What makes it particularly dangerous is that it sends a blaring signal to all future nominees that they can now lie to duly elected members of the United States Senate in order to secure Supreme Court confirmations and seats on the Supreme Court."

Lieu also previously accused some justices of lying about their stance on Roe v. Wade. The day the Dobbs’ decision was announced, Lieu posted a message about a Gallup poll that found confidence in the Supreme Court’s support for abortion rights was at a low.

"Multiple conservative Supreme Court Justices led the American people to believe that Roe v. Wade was settled precedent during their confirmation hearings," Lieu wrote in the June 24 tweet. "The American people now know these Justices lied. And now public confidence in the Court is at its lowest level in history."

Both Lieu and Ocasio-Cortez vowed to fight for abortion rights following the official verdict.

"People will die because of this decision," Ocasio-Cortez said. "And we will never stop until abortion rights are restored in the United States of America."