Oscar Stilley, a 58-year-old Arkansas man, got up early on Monday morning and decided to sue Dr. Alan Braid, the San Antonio doctor who‘s openly defied Texas’ state ban on most abortions.
“I was cranky,” Stilley joked. “So I filed a lawsuit.”
It is possibly the first lawsuit in the country to be tied to the new statute, SB 8, which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectable—about six weeks into a pregnancy. The law is enforceable by private citizens, who can take medical providers or anyone else who “abets” an abortion in violation of the ban to court to try and collect a bounty of up to $10,000.
“That’s a fine payday,” said Stilley, but the cash is only part of why he filed the complaint against Braid.
Stilley said he’s been watching the saga unfold from his home in Arkansas. “I know what the proponents of this law are doing,” he explained. “They’re trying to inject uncertainty so that the doctors are going to say, ‘Oh, my goodness, this could bankrupt me.’”
Whether […]
Some women will start using the dangerous old method of using a coat-hanger to do their own abortions.