A man in Arkansas and another in Illinois filed legal actions against a doctor who said he performed an abortion after the passing of the strict new abortion law in Texas.
Oscar Stilley from Arkansas said he filed the lawsuit against a Texas doctor who publicly wrote about performing an abortion in order to put the law to the test, the New York Times reports.
Indeed, the law relies on citizens to file legal claims against abortion providers or anyone believed to perform or assist with an abortion.
Stilley said he was not trying to stop abortions by Dr. Alan Braid, a doctor who said he violated Texas law. He was simply trying to follow the law.
“I’m not pro-life,” Stilley said. “The thing that I’m trying to vindicate here is the law. We pride ourselves on being a nation of laws. What’s the law?”
Felipe N. Gomez, a pro-choice man from Illinois, also sued Dr. Braid.
In an opinion essay in the Washington Post, Dr. Braid said he decided to violate the Texas law out of a firm belief in abortion.
“I have daughters, granddaughters and nieces. I believe abortion is an essential part of health care,” he wrote. “I have spent the past 50 years treating and helping patients. I can’t just sit back and watch us return to 1972.”
He disclosed that on September 6, he “provided an abortion to a woman who, through still in her first trimester, was beyond the state’s new limit.”
