(Bloomberg) -- A Texas doctor who admitted he performed an abortion that violates a new state law was sued, setting up the first test of the highly restrictive statute, according to the Washington Post.
The lawsuit, against San Antonio physician Alan Braid, was filed on Monday by an Arkansas man who said he wanted to test the constitutionality of the law, S.B. 8. The law holds that anyone can sue a person believed to have performed an illegal abortion or played a role in it. It says abortion is illegal after a “heartbeat” in the fetus can be detected, which is often as early as six weeks, before most women realize they're pregnant.
The plaintiff, Oscar Stilley, said he sued after reading a news report that Braid had acted out of a sense of duty because the woman in question had “a fundamental right to receive this care,” the Post reported.
“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,” Braid had written in a column in the Post.
According to the newspaper, Stilley said he wasn't against abortion rights but believed the law should be subject to judicial review, and that he noted if he succeeded he could win at least $10,000, as the law provides.
Stilley filed the suit in state court in Bexar County, Texas, which includes San Antonio.
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