The first lawsuits have been filed in Texas courts to claim a $10,000 bounty under the state’s ultra-restrictive abortion ban.
A disbarred Arkansas lawyer named Oscar Stilley has sued a San Antonio doctor for performing an abortion after 6 weeks.
Under Texas law, anyone in the country can sue anyone who performs an abortion after that period in the state.
OB/GYN Alan Braid admitted to the procedure in the pages of the Washington Post this weekend in an Op-Ed.
"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," wrote Braid.
Stilley was disbarred more than a decade ago, a few months after he went to prison for tax evasion. If successful, he would receive $10,000 under the law, but that isn’t why he said he sued.
“I'm all in favor of money. But let's stop and think about this. Do you know anybody who thinks this is a valid law?” he asked.
Stilley said the law needed to be challenged and that he respected Baird for putting himself at legal risk to do it. Now he wants a court to sort it out.
He said if a guy like him, someone who is in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, can use the law to sue, that should tell you how much legal merit it has.
"They've got a disbarred lawyer, Oscar Stilley, In Cedarville, Arkansas, enforcing this...in home confinement in BOP custody,” he said.
Despite his reservations about the law, Stilley said he would connect with those who passed the bill and try to faithfully argue the case.
A second lawsuit against Braid was filed by an Illinois man Monday as well.
