Texas Arrests Criminal Abortion Ring Similar to California Chain Brought Down by Operation Rescue

By Cheryl Sullenger

Houston, TX – When Troy Newman first heard the news of an illegal abortion ring operating in Texas, he felt a flash of déjà vu. He had seen it all before.

About 17 years ago, Newman, President of Operation Rescue, helped shut down an illegal eleven-clinic chain operated by a woman with no medical license. She surrounded herself with unscrupulous and incompetent abortionists that preyed on Hispanic women on the seedy streets of Southern California.

It was one of the largest illegal abortion gangs ever exposed.

Through clinic outreaches and dogged research, Operation Rescue discovered that Bertha Bugarin, who operated the Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy abortion chain, was conducting abortions without any medical background. Abortionists she employed included a Rogue’s Gallery of miscreants, including one that was disciplined twice for raping his patients; a “Dr. Steve,” who had no medical license and disappeared after Operation Rescue filed complaints against him; an elderly abortionist who left a woman unattended to bleed to death on the abortion table; and an alcoholic who was disciplined for conducting abortions while intoxicated – to name a few.  (Read more about this remarkable case.)

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Newman began a one-year campaign to expose Bugarin’s criminal abortion enterprise and to bring her to justice. That campaign succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations.

Based on information provided by Newman and his group, Bugarin and several of her accomplices were arrested during a police raid of her Los Angeles clinics in 2009. Later, she was arrested and charged in San Diego County for committing illegal abortions. Bugarin was sentenced to 6 years, 8 months in prison for her abortion crimes. All her abortion clinics closed later that year.

The similarities between the evolving Texas illegal abortion case and the California crimes are striking.

“There are people in this world who will do about anything for money, and that includes preying on vulnerable pregnant women and killing innocent babies in the womb,” said Newman. “There is no doubt that abortion criminals continue to lurk in the shadows exploiting women and their babies without conscience. Thankfully, the State of Texas is doing their part to bring such criminals to justice.”

Texas Protects

On August 25, 2022, Texas enacted legal protections that made conducting abortions a Class Two Felony punishable by 2-20 years in prison and fines up to $10,000 with civil penalties of up to $100,000.

Abortionists have been seeking ways to evade that law in Texas ever since.

In January, authorities received an anonymous tip alerting them to a possible illegal abortion scheme operating at three South Texas abortion facilities as far back as September 2023.

Like their counterparts in Los Angeles so many years ago, Texas investigators began surveilling three so-called medical offices, which preyed exclusively on Hispanic women.

• Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller.
• Clinica Latinoamericana Telge in Cypress.
• Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring.

According to KHOU 11 in Houston, investigators “staked out” the clinics and even conducted “dumpster diving” for evidence.

Dramatic Arrests

This led to the discovery that none of the three people who engaged in the illicit abortion scheme were licensed to practice medicine. (Read Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Press Release announcing the arrests.)

Maria Margarita Rojas, 48, a midwife who posed as a gynecologist and went by the name “Dr. Maria.”  She is the apparent owner of the three clinics.

• Rojas was arrested first on March 6, then again on March 17 on three counts of Practicing Medicine without a License and two counts of Performance of an Abortion (“Prohibited Dismemberment Abortion”).
• A Waller County Jail online inmate search showed that her bail was set at $1.4 million.  Rojas remains listed among the Waller County Jail inmate population as of this writing.

Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, 29, who worked for Rojas as a medical assistant.

• Cendan Ley is reportedly a Cuban national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was later awarded a Green Card through a Biden-era program that encouraged unlawful border crossing, which was terminated by the Trump Administration earlier this year. Cenden Ley faces potential deportation.
• Even though Cendan Ley apparently worked as a doctor in Cuba, he was never licensed to practice in the U.S.
• Cenden Ley was arrested on March 17 charged with three counts of Practicing Medicine without a License and one count of Performance of an Abortion (“Prohibited Dismemberment Abortion”).
• His bond was set at $700,000, according to a Waller County Jail inmate search. Cenden Ley has been released on bail.

Rubildo Labanino Matos, 54, is identified as a nurse practitioner who worked for Rojas.

• Matos is another Cuban national who appears to have an undefined legal status in the U.S. Details of his case remain murky.
• Matos’ Nurse Practitioner license is reportedly on probation by the Texas Board of Nursing for negligent patient treatment, but a search of the Board’s online license verification and disciplinary records now shows no mention of Matos.
• He was arrested on March 8 upon returning to the U.S. from Cuba and was charged with Conspiracy to Practice Medicine without a License. He allegedly allowed Cenden Ley to illegally use his license credentials on medical paperwork in Matos’ absence.
• Matos posted a bond and was released from jail.

Pressured Into Unwanted Abortion

One of Rojas’ patients cooperated with investigators and told a horror story about her experience with the illegal abortionist. The woman, identified only as E.G., went to the Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller for what she believed was an appointment with a gynecologist. Clinic workers identified Rojas as “Dr. Maria.”

Just six months before, E.G. had delivered healthy twins by Caesarean section. Rojas informed her that she was then four weeks pregnant and began to pressure her to have an abortion, insisting that her baby was not viable, even though E.G. did not want an abortion.

Based on Rojas’s insistence that her baby would not survive, E.G. was persuaded to take pills provided by Rojas with Cenden Ley’s assistance. However, the pills did not work, so she returned the next day and was given another dose of pills by mouth and vaginally. She later learned that the pills were misoprostol, a drug commonly used to cause abortions.

Authorities discovered Misoprostol in the Waller clinic during Rojas’ March 6 arrest, along with other abortion-related equipment and supplies.

E.G. said she had no idea that Rojas was not a licensed physician and told investigators that if she had known, she would have continued her pregnancy. E.G. used Zelle to pay her bill totaling $1320. In comparison the average price for a chemical abortion in the U.S. is $605, according to Operation Rescue’s 2024 Survey of abortion practices.

Closed!

On March 17, Judge Gary W. Chaney of the 506^th Judicial District Court in Weller, Texas, issued a Temporary Restraining Order closing all three of Rojas’ clinics and prohibited anyone associated with them from “providing any medical services, including abortions.”

Judge Chaney has set a hearing for March 27 at 9:00 a.m. where he is expected to extend the Temporary Restraining Order.

First of Its Kind

This important illegal abortion case is the first of its kind under the 2022 abortion law. It should serve as a deterrent to others who might feel tempted to cash in on dishing out illegal abortion drugs. An active investigation continues, so the possibility exists that the case could expand.

Meanwhile, Newman is watching closely. He hopes to see Rojas and her co-defendants receive justice just as Bertha Bugarin and her cohorts did in California.

He also ponders other illegal abortion investigations Operation Rescue has conducted over the years, besides the Bugarin case. While there were many successes, there were also disappointments when officials just wanted to look the other way as laws were broken and human suffering ensued.

But that is not happening in Texas.

“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking this case on like a pit bull with a bone. I am very encouraged at the progress of this case so far,” Newman said. “We have investigated several illegal abortion cases around the country from Maryland to Florida to California and beyond and know first-hand how hard it is to get a prosecutor’s attention. Seeing the zeal to protect women and their babies from these predatory criminals is gratifying.”

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