HOUSTON—A second person was arrested for assisting a Texas midwife accused of providing illegal abortions in violation of the southern US state’s near-total ban on the procedure, an official said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that a 48-year-old midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, was arrested for providing illegal abortions and illegally operating a network of clinics in the Houston area.
Her arrest on the second-degree felony charge—as well as for practicing medicine without a license—marked the first time authorities had filed criminal charges under Texas’s laws.
Paxton’s office issued another statement Tuesday saying that Jose Cendan Ley, a 29-year-old medical assistant, was also arrested.
The Cuban national had allegedly assisted Rojas “in providing at least one illegal abortion.”
“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 in his statement.
His office also said Ley had entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was later placed on parole.
Another nurse was also arrested in early March in connection to this investigation and was “charged with conspiracy to practice medicine without a license,” Paxton’s office said in the same statement.