During a March 27 hearing, Waller County District Judge Gary Chaney granted an injunction declaring that a network of three Houston-area clinics must remain temporarily closed. Marc Hearron, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights and a civil attorney for Rojas, stopped short of calling the court proceedings a dog and pony show but clearly thinks the case is flawed.
The civil complaint sought to keep the clinics closed, so Hearron was in court to challenge that. The attorney was surprised, however, to see Rojas in the Waller courtroom. She invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when questioned and Hearron declined to comment on his legal advice but said he was able to speak with Rojas privately.
“We had not asked for Rojas to be present at the hearing,” he said. “We were not planning to call her to testify. The state had not subpoenaed her to be present.”
It appears that Waller County authorities transported Rojas to the courtroom on March 27 because she was already in custody. At the time of the hearing, Rojas had been in jail for 10 days pending the posting of a massive $1 million bond “even though the state had not filed criminal charges against her and still has not filed criminal charges against her,” Hearron said.
Rojas posted bond the day before the hearing butt wasn’t immediately released because the courts did not arrange for her ankle monitor, Hearron said. She was released after the March 27 hearing with the tracking device.
Maria Rojas is a strong and resilient person and a licensed healthcare provider, Hearron said.
“She really cares for the people that she provides healthcare to,” he said. “She was a doctor in Peru, but in the United States, she was a licensed midwife before the state of Texas temporarily revoked her license as a result of this nonsense. She has these clinics, and the clinics primarily serve uninsured Spanish-speaking populations. Nothing in the state’s evidence showed any unlawful activity going on at these clinics.”
What happens next is up to the judge, Hearron said, but the more pressing matter is what happens to the families who were seeking healthcare at Rojas’ clinics. Clínica Waller Latinoamericana and its affiliates in Cypress and Spring are shuttered for the foreseeable future. Patients who, for example, had blood drawn and were waiting on results may have to find care elsewhere, Hearron said.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first person that Ken Paxton goes after and accuses of violating the abortion ban in the state of Texas is someone who is providing midwifery — not traditional OBGYN care — to primarily Spanish-speaking uninsured … Look, they tried to make a big deal out of the fact that they found cash and that they took cash for payments. Yeah, these were uninsured people who were going in and getting care. That’s how those populations pay for medical services,” Hearron said.
Court documents allege that Rojas was pretending to be a doctor and using untrained employees to perform abortions for cash, but it’s unclear how the criminal case will proceed or if it will proceed. Rojas was held on an arrest warrant rather than a criminal complaint, which lawyers say is unusual. She has not been indicted by a grand jury and the state has not turned over its discovery related to the criminal charges.
“If she hasn’t been charged yet, why does she have an ankle monitor?” Hearron said. “I don’t know exactly how these preposterous allegations in this case came up but it does appear that Paxton and his office saw the word abortion and salivated at the possibility of going after someone. This seems to be a political stunt without any real evidence. This is all based on hearsay upon hearsay and conjecture and these wild, irresponsible conclusions that they have jumped to without the type of thorough investigation that you would see if you were really interested in stopping supposedly unlawful abortions … My conclusion from all of that is that this is a political stunt designed to raise Ken Paxton’s political bona fides among the anti-abortion electorate. It’s also designed to scare people who are providing necessary healthcare to low-income populations.”
See here, here, and here for the background. The biggest red flag is that there still haven’t been any formal charges filed in this case. You’d think Ken Paxton would be trampling over people in a rush to get charges filed, but not if there’s nothing to them and certainly not if he has to show that he has no real evidence of any crimes. I have to assume that at some point Rojas’ attorneys will try to force this issue. The politics of this are clear enough – it’s hardly a coincidence that the arrest of Maria Rojas came just a short time before Paxton’s Senate campaign announcement – but sooner or later he’s going to have to play his cards.
Defense attorney thinks case against client is flawed … Gee
Further: Herron is licensed by Texas, but his primary practice area is Washington DC. Does a lot of federal appellate work. What does he know about the facts in the case? And why would he not selectively omit or distort them in his client’s favor assuming he acquired any through attorney-client privileged communications?
After all, Texas attorneys have tort immunity. Even perjury is protected, one of the local appellate courts told us recently. Once again. Sad but true.
Bottom line: You can ignore attorney comments on a pending case. They are advocates and are expected to dissemble, distort, and lie. That’s what Texas attorneys do. They aren’t under oath in public communications, so they are “good” on the criminal side.
Sooo…..if you “primarily serve uninsured Spanish-speaking populations.” doing medical procedures for cash is just O.K.?
So how is paying jn cash- legal tender- such a problem? These patients don’t have insurance and they probably don’t have bank accounts either. The issue isn’t where her attorney is barred, it’s why haven’t charges been filed. It’s said a DA can indict a ham sandwich, let’s see it.
Doing medical procedures for cash is generally okay. Why would it not be okay?
If you primarily serve uninsured Spanish-speaking populations, you’re just more likely to be getting cash than card-based payments and insurance payments.
This is how this population of people get taken advantage of. Thinking this person is providing a service? Or taking advantage of a population who wouldn’t go to authorities if there were a serious problem? This is how Roe v. Wade got traction.
Hospital births are incredibly expensive. I was present at a home birth supervised by a midwife, she was very professional and the cost was a fraction of what the hospital would have been, even if the birth mother had had insurance. And yes, she was paid in cash. How else?
And who else is Paxton going to attack as a launch event for his Senate run? A white collar criminal who obviously took bribes? A guy who pretended to be a financial advisor? Of course not! He is going to find a hispanic female who he can hang some nebulous charges on. Or some black woman. This is all about his Senate campaign and nothing else. It is not surprising that no actual charges have been filed. This is just a PR stunt after all.
According to the reporting, the unauthorized provider was a doctor in Peru.
It’s not like they don’t have medical schools there and the course of study is actually 7 years, which is more than in Texas.
See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayetano_Heredia_University
So, it’s a question of accreditation in the U.S. Kind’a like a lawyer from New York having to seek pro hac vice admission when participating in litigation in Texas, but with an important difference: Medicine is an rather universal endeavor (based on science) while laws and legal regulation and court procedures are state-specific and therefore vary considerably. So, the training for foreign medical doctors is much more like that of US doctors while the same is not true analogously for lawyers (barristers, solicitors, legal counsel).
Think about it in a different way: Suppose you fly down to see Machu Picchu and get sick. If the coca leave chewing does you no good, you are going to see a doctor there who is not accredited by the Texas Bd. of Medicine. If you are really sick, you’ll be happy to get seen. And with dollars, it shouldn’t be a problem. (Across the border in Ecuador, they actually use the dollar instead of their national currency, the sucre, RIP 2000). Point being, a foreign doctor is not automatically a bad actor in terms of skills. If not licensed locally, of course, it’s unauthorized practice of medicine and against the law. But that’s a different kind of violation when compared to a violation of a law that prohibits abortion.
As for abortion, it’s generally illegal in Peru, so I don’t know, but they do get traning for miscarriage and aftermath of botched self-arranged abortions, according to a medical student I corresponded with earlier in the world wide web era.
Unlike in Texas, in Peru the woman can be prosecuted under their Penal Code, not just the provider, with punishment of 2 years jail or community service.
Here, a summary for Spanish practice on Peruvian abortion law and exceptions:
“El aborto es ilegal en Perú, salvo en casos de riesgo para la vida de la gestante o para evitar un grave daño a su salud, y potencialmente en casos de violación sexual. La legislación peruana penaliza tanto a la mujer que causa su propio aborto como a quien lo practica sin su consentimiento.”
Wolf, you are meant to think she was somehow involved with illegal abortions. If that were true she would have been charged. There are no charges. She just got her life destroyed by one of the worst public officials I have ever seen as a campaign event. Par for the course for modern day GOP politicians.