During the past presidential election season, abortion stories were a hot ticket across the network evening news. The networks did everything in their power to try to make the issue a dispositive one, in the hopes of tilting the election to Vice President Kamala Harris. With the election now behind us, abortion stories are largely out of view. But the CBS Evening News changed that, at least for tonight.
Watch as CBS gives sympathetic treatment to a midwife accused of illegally performing abortions in the state of Texas:
SHAMLIAN: Court documents charge that Rojas provided medication to induce an abortion in March, and allege she told her patient her pregnancy was likely nonviable. She allegedly performed another abortion on a different patient in January. The method is unclear. A search warrant found misoprostol in Rojas' car and one of her clinics. The medication can be used for a variety of medical purposes, including to induce abortion. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the arrest. He said in a statement, "Individuals killing unborn babies will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." Mary Ziegler is a law professor who studies abortion-related issues.
MARY SIEGLER: Attorney General Paxton was trained to find someone who was not a licensed physician, to argue that providers posed a threat to Texans in general.
SHAMLIAN: Sherman says she is worried about how Rojas is doing.
SHERMAN: In my mind, she’s a hero, she helps people.
SHAMLIAN: You see her that way?
SHERMAN: Yes, definitely.
Who is this “hero” that “helps people”? More detail than was disclosed in Janet Shamlian’s report was found on CBS News dot com:
(Texas Attorney General Ken) Paxton said that Maria "Dr. Maria" Rojas is a known midwife in Northwest Houston and was taken into custody in Waller County. She is accused of performing illegal abortions, which violates the Texas Human Life Protection Act. The law bans abortion after six weeks.
During an investigation, the attorney general's office found that Rojas owned and operated multiple clinics under the names Clinica Waller Latinoamericana in Waller, Clinica Latinoamericana Telge in Cypress, both northwest of Houston, and Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring, just north of Houston.
The press release from Paxton's office alleged that Rojas' clinics employed unlicensed people who "falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals."
Shamlian’s report only mentions a clinic where Rojas freelanced at, while omitting the three clinics she owned and operated. Naturally, the character witness is going to speak only as to whatever happened at her own clinic- with shock that the good midwife would deign to perform an abortion.
The framing is such that the truest, purest victim of the Texas abortion law is the noble illegal abortion provider. Election season may be over for the time being, but the death cult marches on- aided and abetted by the corporate media.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, March 19th, 2025:
JOHN DICKERSON: Texas has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
MAURICE DuBOIS: Last night we told you that a midwife and her associate had been arrested for violating that law. Well, tonight, Janet Shamlian takes a closer look at the case.
JANET SHAMLIAN: 48-year-old Maria Rojas is a certified nurse midwife charged with forming illegal abortions and practicing without a medical license. A man who worked for her was also charged. According to the arrest warrant, Rojas ran three clinics near Houston. Her patients called her “Dr. Maria”, but she is not a licensed physician.
HOLLY SHERMAN: I can't picture her doing this. I don't believe that she did.
SHAMLIAN: You don't think she performed abortions?
SHERMAN: No, I do not.
SHAMLIAN: She didn't do that in any capacity for you?
SHERMAN: No. Midwives don't do that, period.
SHAMLIAN: Holly SHERMAN owns the Tomball Birth Center and employed Rojas as a midwife once a week. She’s known her for eight years.
SHERMAN: She was a doctor in Peru, an OB, came to America and America doesn't recognize, you know, physicians from other countries, so then she became a midwife.
SHAMLIAN: Has she ever presented herself as far as you know as a medical doctor?
SHERMAN: No, never.
SHAMLIAN: Court documents charge that Rojas provided medication to induce an abortion in March, and allege she told her patient her pregnancy was likely nonviable. She allegedly performed another abortion on a different patient in January. The method is unclear. A search warrant found misoprostol in Rojas' car and one of her clinics. The medication can be used for a variety of medical purposes, including to induce abortion. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the arrest. He said in a statement, "Individuals killing unborn babies will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law." Mary Ziegler is a law professor who studies abortion-related issues.
MARY SIEGLER: Attorney General Paxton was trained to find someone who was not a licensed physician, to argue that providers posed a threat to Texans in general.
SHAMLIAN: Sherman says she is worried about how Rojas is doing.
SHERMAN: In my mind, she’s a hero, she helps people.
SHAMLIAN: You see her that way?
SHERMAN: Yes, definitely.
DICKERSON: And Janet Shamlian joins us now from Houston. So Janet, what is next in this case?
SHAMLIAN: Well, tonight, Rojas is still in jail. Her bond is set at $700,000. Both of the charges against her are felonies. The abortion charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and there are potential civil penalties, as well. The attorney general is also asking for a restraining order. He wants to close her 3 clinics.
DICKERSON: All right. Janet Shamlian for us in Houston, Texas. Thank you so much, Janet.
