Waller County – A Texas appeals court has reversed a temporary injunction that shut down a Houston-area midwife’s clinics amid allegations that she performed illegal abortions and practiced medicine without a license.
In a memorandum opinion issued Thursday, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals found the state did not present sufficient admissible evidence to justify the injunction against Maria Margarita Rojas and her affiliated clinics.
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However, the three-judge panel emphasized that its ruling does not determine whether the allegations against Rojas are true.
“Although the suit underlying this interlocutory appeal involves allegations that the appellants, a licensed midwife and a group of associated clinics, performed illegal abortions and practiced medicine without a license, this opinion does not decide whether those acts occurred,” Justice Scott Field wrote.
Instead, the court found the Waller County trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits from Rojas’ separate criminal case during the civil injunction hearing.
The appeals court reversed the injunction and sent the civil case back to the trial court for further proceedings.
Court finds affidavits should not have been admitted
The Texas Attorney General’s Office began investigating Rojas and the clinics in 2025 after receiving an anonymous email alleging that abortions had been performed at one of the locations.
Investigators later obtained arrest and search warrants supported by probable-cause affidavits prepared by Lt. Edward Wilkerson with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Three days after Rojas’ arrest, the state filed a separate civil lawsuit seeking penalties and temporary and permanent injunctions. The lawsuit accused Rojas and the clinics of violating the Texas Human Life Protection Act by performing or attempting to perform abortions and the Texas Medical Practice Act by practicing medicine without a license.
During the temporary-injunction hearing, the state introduced the arrest warrants and probable-cause affidavits from the criminal investigation. Rojas’ attorneys objected, arguing the affidavits contained hearsay and could not be used to prove the state was entitled to an injunction.
The appeals court agreed, pointing to a longstanding Texas rule that affidavits generally cannot be used as evidence to support a temporary injunction unless both sides agree.
“Here, the State does not contend, and the record does not reveal, that the parties reached an agreement to allow for the admission of the affidavits,” the court wrote.
The judges found that once the affidavits were removed from consideration, the remaining evidence did not reasonably support the state’s allegations that abortions had been performed at the clinics.
Rojas was the state’s only witness during the injunction hearing. She invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to substantive questions.
While a judge can draw a negative inference from someone invoking the Fifth Amendment in a civil case, the appeals court found that Rojas’ decision not to answer questions was not enough on its own to support a finding that she or the clinics performed abortions.
The state also pointed to clinic website printouts advertising “Doctor Examination” and “Procedures and Minor Surgeries.” However, the court found the state’s lawsuit alleged only that Rojas violated the Medical Practice Act by performing abortions without a physician’s license—not that the website or other services constituted separate violations.
“We conclude that the trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits from a related but separate criminal case and that the remaining evidence is insufficient to reasonably support the existence of a probable right of recovery,” the court wrote.
Clinics were ordered to remain closed in 2025
A Waller County judge issued the temporary injunction in March 2025, preventing Rojas and the clinics from practicing medicine or performing abortions in violation of state law while the civil case continued.
At the time, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton characterized the decision as a victory.
“This network of clinics illegally aborted unborn children and practiced medicine without a license, intentionally deceiving and endangering the communities they claimed to serve,” Paxton said in the March 2025 statement.
The Attorney General’s Office said the injunction would ensure the clinics remained closed after an earlier temporary restraining order expired.
KPRC 2 has reached out to the AG’s office for comment on the court of appeals reversal.
Rojas’ attorneys call the ruling a step toward justice
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Rojas in the civil case, said the clinics largely served low-income, uninsured and primarily Spanish-speaking patients. One location included a birthing center where Rojas delivered babies, according to the organization.
“The state of Texas has no case. Maria Rojas has been an upstanding midwife who delivered babies and provided lawful care for underserved pregnant patients,” Jenna Hudson, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement Thursday.
Hudson accused the state of shutting down needed health care providers based on “trumped-up evidence and a shoddy investigation.”
The organization said Rojas gave up the leases to the clinic locations after the injunction and that reopening them will now be difficult, despite Thursday’s ruling. Rojas’ midwifery license also remains suspended, according to her attorneys.
“It will now be nearly impossible to re-open these clinics,” Hudson said. “Maria Rojas deserves justice, and we will keep fighting.”
Separate criminal case remains pending
Thursday’s ruling applies only to the temporary injunction in the state’s civil lawsuit. It does not dismiss that lawsuit or resolve Rojas’ separate criminal prosecution.
A Waller County grand jury reindicted Rojas on 22 counts in June.
The indictment includes three abortion-related charges and 19 counts accusing Rojas of violating the Texas Medical Practice Act and causing financial harm to patients. The new indictment replaced an earlier 15-count case.
Rojas has pleaded not guilty, and her criminal defense attorney has maintained that she did not commit a crime.
Rojas’ case has drawn national attention because she is the first person criminally charged under Texas’ near-total abortion ban since it took effect following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade.