Texas doctor who says he performed abortion sued in first known challenges under new law
By Tierney Sneed and Ariane de Vogue, CNN
A San Antonio doctor who wrote a Washington Post op-ed claiming that he had violated Texas’ six-week abortion ban now faces at least two lawsuits brought against him under the ban.
One lawsuit was filed Monday by Oscar Stilley, a former tax attorney in Arkansas who is serving a home confinement sentence for a federal conviction on tax crimes.
He filed the lawsuit against the physician, Dr. Alan Braid, in Bexar County.
RELATED: Texas doctor says he violated the state’s strict new abortion law
In a phone interview with CNN, Stilley said he is an opponent of the law that bars most abortions in the state, but wants to clear the way for a judge to rule on its constitutionality.
“I am a supporter of the Constitution, and I am opposed to the law,” Stilley said.
A second lawsuit has also been filed against Braid by Felipe N. Gomez, an Illinois resident who describes himself as a “Pro Choice Plaintiff” in the suit.
The lawsuits open up a new front in the legal war around the six-week abortion ban, which went into effect on September 1.
Abortion rights advocates have so far failed to get a federal court to block the law, as the ban’s supporters designed it specifically with the goal of evading judicial review. Rather than task government officials with enforcing the ban, via criminal or regulatory punishments, the Texas state legislature essentially deputized private citizens with the ability to bring private civil litigation in state courts against abortion providers or anyone else who facilitates an abortion that violates the law.
“S.B. 8 says that ‘any person’ can sue over a violation, and we are starting to see that happen, including by out-of-state claimants,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Braid in a federal lawsuit challenging the abortion ban, said Monday in a statement.
Braid did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiries.
The anti-abortion activists who championed the new ban have touted the chilling effect it immediately had, as many abortion providers in the state have publicly said that they were for now complying with the law.
“The question isn’t whether Dr. Braid is going to win this lawsuit; he almost certainly will,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN legal analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
“It’s how future SB8 lawsuits can be blocked,” Vladeck added. “And nothing that happens in this case can prevent future lawsuits from being brought — that’s the whole point of transferring enforcement authority from a single state to a limitless class of potential private plaintiffs.”
Stilley’s lawsuit was first reported by The Washington Post.
Stilley told CNN he was suing Braid because wanted a “judge to make a ruling on” the law.
“I think the doctor has guts and he has principle and I decided that I would be the one to get some clarity on this law,” Stilley said.
Stilley, who was charged with several federal tax crimes in 2009 and was later convicted, said that he was serving as his own lawyer in the case.
This story has been updated with additional details.
The-CNN-Wire
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