Alan Braid, a Texas OB/GYN, is being sued following an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he boasted of deliberately performing an illegal abortion.
He opened his practice in 1972 when abortion was illegal, but focused on performing abortions once the Supreme Court struck down state abortion restrictions in its historic Roe v. Wade ruling. He boasted:
For the next 45 years … I was a practicing OB/GYN in Texas … providing abortion care at clinics I opened in Houston and San Antonio, and another in Oklahoma.
But then, on September 1, Texas law SB8 became effective.
Complained Braid:
[The law] shut down about 80 percent of the abortion services we provide. Anyone who suspects I have violated the law can sue me for at least $10,000. They could also sue anybody who helps a person obtain an abortion past the new limit, including, apparently, the driver who brings a patient to my office.
For me, it is 1972 all over again.
So, Braid decided to break the law:
That is why, on the morning of September 6, I provided an abortion to a woman who, though still in her first trimester, was beyond the state’s new limit [i.e., the child’s heartbeat could be detected].
I acted because I had a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care.
He knew he was setting himself up to be sued:
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….
I understand that by providing an abortion beyond the next legal limit, I am taking a personal risk, but it’s something I believe in strongly.
Any financial risk the abortionist might suffer is being mitigated by legal help he is getting:
Represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, my clinics are among the plaintiffs in an ongoing federal lawsuit to stop S.B. 8.
But it might end his profitable practice if Operation Rescue has its way. The pro-life group filed a complaint with the Texas Medical Board seeking an immediate suspension of his medical license. Said OR’s President Troy Newman:
Because Braid publicly admitted guilt in violating Texas law by killing a baby whose life was protected by that duly enacted law, Operation Rescue filed [the complaint]. The emergency suspension is necessary to prevent [Braid] from further illegal conduct and to ensure the protection of innocent lives.
The official complaint from Operation Rescue stated:
The intentional taking the life of an innocent child whose life is under the protection of the law is a permanent and egregious loss that cannot be restored. It cannot be rectified. It cannot be undone. That human being is lost forever, and that loss represents a grievous crime that cannot be tolerated in the name of civil disobedience, political theater, or financial profit. It would certainly not be tolerated at any other stage of life in Texas.
Two lawsuits have been filed against Braid. Both are from attorneys, and neither has any interest in saving lives of unborn children.
Oscar Stilley, who is currently serving a 15-year sentence for tax fraud under home confinement, told the Associated Press: “I don’t want doctors out there nervous and sitting there and quaking in their boots and saying, ‘I can’t do this because if this thing works out, then I’m going to be bankrupt.’”
Stilley told the Wall Street Journal that he is neutral on the issue of abortion, but he considers the new Texas law as an “end run” around established law and that “he wants to see a clear ruling on whether [SB8] is legitimate.”
The other suiter, Felipe Gomez, a resident of Illinois, calls himself a “pro-choice plaintiff” who said that, if he wins, he would likely give the $10,000 reward to an abortion-rights organization.
Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest pro-life group, said they consider neither lawsuit as having anything to do with saving lives:
Neither of these lawsuits are valid attempts to save innocent lives. We believe Braid published his op-ed intending to attract imprudent lawsuits, but none came from the Pro-Life movement.
To be valid, each plaintiff must first persuade a judge that they have standing to sue, even though neither has personally suffered financial or economic damages because of Texas’ new pro-life “heartbeat” law.
The pressure to reestablish abortion as murder continues to grow. The Supreme Court just announced that it will begin hearing arguments to reverse Roe in the Mississippi case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in December.
Related articles:
Federal Judge Denies DOJ Demand to Halt Texas’ Heartbeat Law
Mississippi Abortion Clinic begs Supreme Court to keep Roe v. Wade
