Dr. Alan Braid, an OBGYN from San Antonio, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post to say that he had performed an abortion outside the legal six-week window because he felt it was his duty to his patient in her first trimester.
"I fully understood that there could be legal consequences," writes the abortionist, "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 got his wish – from an unlikely source. An Arkansas man named Oscar Stilley is suing Braid in Bexar County District Court, saying he hopes to test the constitutionality of the law.
"I woke up this morning … and I saw a story about this doctor, Dr. Braid," said Oscar Stilley, a former lawyer that USA Today says was convicted of tax fraud in 2010. "He's obviously a man of principle and courage and it just made me mad to see the trick bag they put him in and I just decided: I'm going to file a lawsuit. We're going to get an answer, I want to see what the law is."
In an interview with American Family News, Rebecca Parma, senior legislative associate at Texas Right to Life, describes Stilley's decision as another "legal stunt" just trying to attract lawsuits.
"There's two lawsuits filed so far and none of those came from the pro-life movement," Parma tells AFN. "They're brought by disbarred attorneys who are using the cause of action under the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes in self-serving legal stunts."
According to his op-ed, Braid and his clinics are among the plaintiffs suing to stop the Texas Heartbeat Act, which went into effect on September 1. The law bans abortions in the state as early as six weeks.
