A midwife in Texas could face up to 20 years in prison for providing reproductive health care in the state, which has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. The arrest of Maria Margarita Rojas marks the first criminal case against an alleged abortion provider in Texas since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 — and a major escalation in the far right’s war against bodily autonomy.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday that Rojas, 48, had been arrested on charges of providing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without a license. One of her employees, Jose Ley, was also arrested for providing an abortion and practicing without a license. Providing an abortion in Texas is punishable by up to life in prison and up to $100,000 in civil fines.

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    You’re up and down this thread misrepresenting the facts here.

    No, I"m not. I’m expressing an opinion on a general topic, not speaking specifically about this case. This specific case was just a trigger for me to comment generally.

    These are medication abortions,

    The article is paywalled, and I cannot read it, so I’m determining my opinion based on what I read in the summary of this post …

    providing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without a license

    She wouldn’t have been arrested for dispensing legally obtainable pills, normaly. The patient would just order the meds online and take them themselves.

    Someone else weaponizing laws for political gains is a different conversation.

    There’s no surgery involved.

    Not for the mid/late-term ones.

    This comment is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      The article is paywalled, and I cannot read it, so I’m determining my opinion based on what I read in the summary of this post

      Here’s a suggestion: how about instead of forming your opinion based on known incomplete data, you decide instead to just, like, not form an opinion at all until you get that information, much less spout off based on your own speculation.

      She wouldn’t have been arrested for dispensing legally obtainable pills, normaly.

      ???

      They made abortion illegal in Texas. She performed abortions in the manner that is legal elsewhere, using a procedure that matches the standard of care where it is legal, under training and qualifications that are sufficient elsewhere. So she was arrested for dispensing pills normally and in the manner that they are regulated elsewhere. This is the safe and legal method elsewhere, and was the safe and legal method in Texas until recently.

      Comparing it to back alley abortions is intentionally misleading to the point of dishonesty.

      There’s no surgery involved.

      Not for the mid/late-term ones.

      She…didn’t perform any of those. I’m going off of the facts of what she is being accused of doing in the criminal charges.