Texas doctor says he violated nation's most restrictive abortion law to challenge it [View all]

[pnwmom]

Source: WA POST

A Texas doctor stepped forward Saturday to say he had performed an abortion that is illegal under the state's restrictive new law to force a test of its legality.

"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," Alan Braid, a San Antonio OB/GYN, said in an op-ed in The Washington Post. "I have daughters, granddaughters and nieces. I believe abortion is an essential part of health care. ... I can't just sit back and watch us return to 1972.

Braid said he performed a first-trimester abortion on Sept. 6, just a few days after the law known as Senate Bill 8 went into effect in Texas, making nearly all abortions illegal after a woman is about six weeks pregnant -- with no exceptions for incest or rape. The doctor said he acted because he had "a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients."

The op-ed is the latest development in the storm over Texas's abortion law, the most restrictive in the nation. The law took effect Sept. 1 after a conservative Supreme Court majority declined to block it, saying the abortion rights advocates who challenged it could not show they were suing the right people. The Justice Department sued Texas just over a week ago to try to block the ban and has also made an emergency request to a federal judge in Austin to immediately block its enforcement. The judge set an Oct. 1 hearing date.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/texas-abortion-doctor-tests-restrictive-law/2021/09/18/f5b48862-18a0-11ec-9589-31ac3173c2e5_story.html

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HERE IS LINK TO THE OP-ED:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/18/texas-abortion-provider-alan-braid/

I was a practicing OB/GYN in Texas, conducting Pap smears, pelvic exams and pregnancy check-ups; delivering more than 10,000 babies; and providing abortion care at clinics I opened in Houston and San Antonio, and another in Oklahoma.

Then, this month, everything changed. A new Texas law, known as S.B. 8, virtually banned any abortion beyond about the sixth week of pregnancy. It shut down about 80 percent of the abortion services we provide. Anyone who suspects I have violated the new 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 clinic.

For me, it is 1972 all over again.

And that is why, 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. 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.

A SUMMARY PIECE AT RAW STORY:

https://www.rawstory.com/doctor-defies-texas-abortion-law/

JEZEBEL'S PIECE, NO PAYWALL:

https://jezebel.com/texas-doctor-provides-abortion-in-violation-of-new-stat-1847702947