Texas Doctor Who Performed Abortion Is Sued in Test of New Law - The Wall Street Journal
Alan Braid, a San Antonio physician, said in a Washington Post opinion essay Saturday that he had performed an abortion in defiance of the law, widely known as SB 8, earlier this month.
A former Arkansas lawyer, Oscar Stilley, who said he is on home confinement serving time after a tax-fraud conviction, filed a civil complaint against the doctor Monday in Bexar County District Court. He said he decided to sue the doctor after he read about the case early Monday morning and wanted to test the Texas law, which doesn’t require plaintiffs to be state residents.
“The doctor is going to get sued,” Mr. Stilley said. “Someone is going to get $10,000 off him. If that’s the law, I may as well get the money. If it’s not the law, let’s go to court and get it sorted out.”
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Mr. Stilley said he is neither antiabortion nor in favor of abortion rights, and not affiliated with any abortion-related political groups. He said he considers the Texas statute to be an “end run” around established law and wants to see a clear ruling on whether it is legitimate.
In a separate lawsuit, Felipe N. Gomez, an Illinois resident who is described in his filing as a “pro choice plaintiff,” filed a complaint Monday morning in Bexar County. While the complaint is against Dr. Braid, it says Mr. Gomez believes the Texas law to be illegal and asks a court to strike it down. He said that he wasn’t interested in collecting any money.
“I’m against having someone tell me I have to get a shot or wear a mask and the same people who agree with me on that—the GOP—tell people what they can do with their bodies on the other hand,” Mr. Gomez said. “It’s inconsistent.”
Dr. Braid said in his essay that he understood he could face legal consequences for the abortion he performed. “I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested,” he wrote.
The doctor declined to comment further through a spokesperson with the Center for Reproductive Rights, a national abortion-rights group representing him in his capacity as a plaintiff in a pending federal lawsuit against SB 8.
Legal scholars say Dr. Braid and abortion-rights advocates representing him could potentially try to turn a lawsuit against the doctor to their advantage.
Dr. Braid could try to sue an SB 8 claimant, contending that such people are acting as government agents under color of state law and subject to federal civil-rights laws that could protect abortion providers, according to Michael Masinter, a professor of law emeritus at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and an expert on civil procedure and civil-rights litigation. The professor said he was skeptical that such a lawsuit could succeed.
John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, hasn’t sued Dr. Braid or any other abortion provider. He said the group is wary of bringing a lawsuit against Dr. Braid without more certitude that the abortion the doctor performed was unlawful under SB 8.
“We want to make sure it’s someone who violated the law and is worth the time to go into a lawsuit,” Mr. Seago said.
Dr. Braid didn’t explicitly say himself that he tested for a fetal heartbeat as required by law or that he carried out the procedure after detecting cardiac activity, as the law prohibits.
Write to Elizabeth Findell at [email protected] and Jacob Gershman at [email protected]
source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-doctor-who-performed-abortion-is-sued-in-test-of-new-law-11632176035
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