An abortionist in Texas bragged in the mainstream media about violating the Lone Star’s new six-week abortion ban, likely triggering new legal proceedings.
Dr. Alan Braid, a physician in San Antonio, wrote an op-ed published in The Washington Post, admitting to performing an abortion that breaks the new abortion ban.
“On the morning of Sept. 6, I provided an abortion to a woman who, though still in her first trimester, was beyond the state’s new limit,” the physician wrote in the op-ed.
Braid proclaimed that it was “1972 all over again” after the Texas law passed. He felt it is his duty to provide the “fundamental right” of abortion to his clients. The doctor says that it is because of his daughters, granddaughters, and nieces that he believes in abortion as “essential healthcare.”
“I understand that by providing an abortion beyond the new legal limit, I am taking a personal risk, but it’s something I believe in strongly,” Braid said. “I fully understood that there could be legal consequences — but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested.”
The Texas Heartbeat bill allows a civil lawsuit to be brought to state court against any abortion provider that breaks the six-week ban. The civilian bringing the lawsuit does not need to have a connection with the abortion. The law makes it costly to clinics that are found performing abortions through attorneys’ fees and enforcement action.
Braid admitted that he invites legal challenges to the law he deems “unconstitutional.” The doctor is represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights in an ongoing federal lawsuit to stop S.B. 8 with his clinics among the plaintiffs.
In the op-ed, Braid included stories of past patients that have sought abortions. In these stories, the doctor admits that several times a month women come into the clinic claiming that they have been raped. Most of these cases have never been reported to the police.
John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life stated in The Washington Post interview, that Texas Right to Life “is exploring all of our options to hold anyone accountable who breaks the (Texas) law,” which has withstood all efforts by pro-abortion rights supporters to block it thus far and the anti-abortion organizations in Texas are working to keep the law intact.
“The abortion industry has struck out on their 16 previous attempts to stop this law from saving lives so far and this may be another attempt,” the legislative director of Texas Right to Life said in a statement, “This was always something that we expected — that someone would essentially try to bait a lawsuit. So we’re just moving into the next phase of Senate Bill 8 right now.”
The Biden administration’s Justice Department is also working to overturn the Texas abortion law. The department filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas and is pressing a federal judge to put out an order to halt.