Texas midwife injunction reversed: court finds Paxton lacked proof on abortion ban violation

On July 23, 2026, Texas's First Court of Appeals reversed a temporary injunction that had shuttered Maria Margarita Rojas's network of clinics in northwestern Houston. The court found that Attorney General Ken Paxton did not present sufficient evidence that Rojas violated Texas's total abortion ban when he obtained the injunction in 2025. This ruling exposes a pattern of aggressive civil enforcement by Paxton that bypasses the criminal standard of proof—effectively using civil injunctions to close clinics preemptively without a full hearing on the merits. The reversal is a rare check on Paxton's ability to shutter healthcare providers based on unsubstantiated allegations, but it does not undo the months of lost income, patient abandonment, and reputational damage Rojas's clinics suffered. The case highlights how state enforcement actions against abortion providers can cause irreversible harm before courts ever rule on the underlying facts. For patients in Houston, many of whom rely on these clinics for prenatal care and midwifery services, the injunction created a sudden gap in care that Texas's already stretched network of women's health providers could not fill. The ruling affirms that the state must meet its burden of proof even in areas where abortion is banned.