Texas doctor says he violated the state’s new abortion law
A San Antonio doctor admitted to violating Texas’ controversial new restrictions on abortions, saying he recently provided abortion services outside of the legal window because he felt it was his duty to his patient.
The admission came Sunday in an opinion piece in The Washington Post by Dr. Alan Braid, a longtime physician in obstetrics and gynecology. His clinics are among the plaintiffs in an ongoing federal lawsuit to stop the law, known as Senate Bill 8.
Under the headline “Why I violated Texas’s extreme abortion ban,” Braid wrote that he provided an abortion on the morning of Sept. 6 to a woman who could not legally get one.
New restrictions that went into effect Sept. 1 outlaw an abortion after a heartbeat is detected, which is usually about six weeks into a pregnancy – often before a woman knows she is pregnant.
The U.S. Supreme Court left the law in effect by a 5-4 vote but kept open the door for other challenges, which are already in the pipeline.
The law doesn’t include traditional exceptions for abortion, such as in cases of rape or incest, but allows women to have the procedure for “medical emergencies.”
Braid did not say how long his patient had been pregnant but did say the pregnancy was still in the first trimester, which ends at 13 weeks.
He acknowledged the procedure could draw legal consequences because SB 8 provides for any citizen to pursue claims of up to $10,000 against individuals who help a woman get an abortion.
“But I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested,” Braid wrote. “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.”
Braid could not be reach by phone Sunday.
Online reviews of his medical practice show a handful of comments published Sunday praising him for providing the abortion.
Braid began practicing medicine in 1972, when abortions in Texas were effectively illegal unless a psychiatrist certified a woman was suicidal.
“I can’t just sit back and watch us return to 1972,” he wrote in Sunday’s piece.