Dr. Alan Braid said this weekend that he had performed an abortion for a woman in Texas, defying the state's new ban on them after about 6 weeks of pregnancy: "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."
The law also prohibits state officials from enforcing the ban. Instead, it allows individuals to sue abortion providers or anyone who may have helped someone get an abortion after the limit and to seek financial damages of at least $10,000 per defendant. Braid, who has provided abortion care for over 40 years and operated clinics in Houston, San Antonio and Oklahoma, said he was already challenging the strict law in court. His clinics are among the plaintiffs represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights in a federal lawsuit against the law, known as S.B. 8.
