The chief justice of a Texas appeals court says a decades-old legal precedent forced his court to reverse an injunction against a midwife who operated a clinic in Spring.

Chief Justice Scott Brister of the Fifteenth Court of Appeals filed a concurring opinion Thursday in the civil case against Maria Margarita Rojas. Brister wrote that "our hands are tied" and that the evidentiary problem is one "only the Texas Supreme Court can correct."

Rojas operated Latinoamericana Medical Clinic in Spring, along with clinics in Cypress and Waller. She became the first person criminally charged under Texas' near-total abortion ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She was indicted on 15 felony charges in Waller County, alleging she performed illegal abortions and practiced medicine without a license.

In July, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals reversed a temporary injunction that had shut down Rojas' clinics. The court ruled the trial court improperly admitted probable-cause affidavits as evidence, ABC13 reported. Without those affidavits, the remaining evidence did not support the state's allegations that abortions had been performed.

Brister's concurring opinion acknowledged the state had presented substantial evidence in two 25-page affidavits from an investigator with the Texas Attorney General's Office. That evidence included surveillance records, seized oxycodone, an empty bottle of misoprostol and digital payment records.

The affidavits also described two women who said they received abortions and identified Rojas as the person who performed them. Brister wrote that the evidence would have been enough to support the injunction.

The barrier, he said, is a 1968 Texas Supreme Court decision that bars affidavits from being used as proof at temporary-injunction hearings. No statute or rule specifically imposes that prohibition, Brister noted.

Her attorneys have denied the allegations. Marc Hearron, one of her attorneys, told Houston Public Media in February that the state's case was built on a flawed investigation. "The attorney general's office is in such a rush to find and prosecute someone for violating the abortion ban that it conducted a sloppy investigation," Hearron said.

The Texas Attorney General's Office said in a July statement that it intends to petition the Texas Supreme Court for review, according to CBS News. Attorney General Ken Paxton's office alleged Rojas ran an illegal abortion operation.

Rojas' attorney Jenna Hudson of the Center for Reproductive Rights said in July that the clinics have closed despite the reversed injunction. Rojas is barred under her bond conditions from going near the clinic locations, Hudson said.

Rojas remains on house arrest. The criminal charges are pending, and no trial date had been set as of July.