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Appeals Court Reverses Shutdown of Houston Midwife’s Clinics

By ruling key probable-cause affidavits inadmissible, the court sent the civil injunction back to the trial court for further proceedings.

Overview

  • The Fifteenth Court of Appeals on Thursday, July 23, 2026, overturned the temporary injunction that had closed Maria Margarita Rojas’s Houston-area clinics because the trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits from a separate criminal probe.
  • The opinion said it does not decide whether Rojas performed illegal abortions or practiced medicine without a license and returned the civil case to the trial court to re-evaluate the evidence without the affidavits.
  • A separate criminal prosecution remains active after a Waller County grand jury reindicted Rojas in June on 22 counts, including three abortion-related charges and 19 counts alleging violations of the Texas Medical Practice Act.
  • Rojas’s clinics have been closed since a March 2025 injunction, her midwifery license remains suspended, and her legal team says she surrendered leases and lost patient access to care and records, making reopening difficult.
  • The ruling highlights a narrow evidentiary rule in Texas that generally bars affidavits as proof in temporary-injunction hearings and leaves open larger questions about prosecutions under the state’s post-Dobbs abortion ban and their effect on community health access.