Now, Texas’ infamous anti-abortion attorney general, Ken Paxton, has charged a Houston-area midwife, making it the first time authorities have filed criminal charges under the state’s abortion ban.
The 48-year-old midwife owns and operates three health clinics in the Houston area, and was charged with illegally performing an abortion and practicing medicine without a license, according to a statement from Paxton’s office. She could face life in prison and at least $100,000 in fines if convicted.
According to the Texas Tribune, court records show she was first arrested on March 6 for practicing medicine without a license and released on a $10,000 bond the next day. She was arrested again Monday morning along with one other employee, and with the additional abortion charge; both are being held on $500,000 bonds for performing an illegal abortion and $200,000 for the medical license charges (though the state recommended each be held on a million-dollar bond), according to the Washington Post. Court records detail that the midwife and employee allegedly attempted an abortion on a person twice in March, and the midwife performed an abortion on a different person earlier this year. Paxton’s office also filed a restraining order to close the clinics.
“In Texas, life is sacred,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. “I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our state’s pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted. Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable.”
In January, the Post reported that Paxton’s office was working with the anti-abortion organization Right to Life to recruit men to snitch on their partners for having or trying to have an abortion. Further reporting suggested that Paxton’s first-of-its-kind lawsuit against New York doctor Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter—who allegedly mailed abortion pills to a woman in Texas—from December was a result of this effort. According to the Post, Paxton learned about Dr. Carpenter “as part of a broader abortion law enforcement operation the attorney general has quietly created.”
The midwife has been a licensed midwife in Texas since 2018, and her license remains valid until February 2026. In Texas, only physicians are allowed to perform abortions, whereas multiple Democrat-led states have passed legislation and launched training programs in recent years so that healthcare providers like midwives and nurse practitioners can perform the procedure.
“While details of this case remain unclear, we know that Texas officials have been trying every which way to terrify healthcare practitioners from providing care and to trap Texans,” Marc Hearron, interim associate director of ligation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “Their ultimate goal is to end abortion access for all Texans entirely—and they will throw people in jail to get there.”
