Lawsuits challenging the new Texas heartbeat law are piling up.
The latest comes from Texas abortionist Alan Braid who recently admitted to aborting an unborn baby with a beating heart in violation of the law in a Washington Post column.
Forbes reports Braid, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Illinois against three private citizens who sued him for breaking the law.
Braid’s lawsuit claims the pro-life law is unconstitutional and asks the court to block any future lawsuits against him, according to the report.
The Texas heartbeat law went into effect Sept. 1, prohibiting abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy. Unique from other states, the Texas law includes a private enforcement mechanism that allows people to file lawsuits against abortionists who violate the law and those who help them.
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After Braid admitted to breaking the law and basically welcomed litigation against him, three people responded with lawsuits, including two disbarred attorneys who identify as “pro-choice.” Texas Right to Life quickly dismissed their lawsuits as “self-serving legal stunts,” not “valid attempts to save innocent human lives.”
In Braid’s lawsuit, he asks the court to combine all three cases against him and determine which of the three citizens would receive damages if they win.
Here’s more from Forbes:
SB 8 [the heartbeat law] stipulates citizens who win those lawsuits are entitled to at least $10,000 in damages, so Braid asked the court to determine which of the three plaintiffs—if any—would be entitled to those damages and to bring the lawsuits together to “avoid wasteful, vexatious and duplicative litigation and potentially conflicting rulings.”
Because Braid contests SB 8’s constitutionality, the lawsuit argues the doctor should be entitled not to pay anyone the $10,000 in damages and retain the funds himself, however.
Texas is the first state to be allowed to enforce a heartbeat law, and babies’ lives are being saved. Texas Right to Life estimates approximately 3,000 babies have been saved from violent abortion deaths since September.
Thus far, state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have rejected pro-abortion groups’ requests to block the law. However, the court battle is far from over. A federal judge heard arguments from the Biden administration’s Department of Justice on Friday, and a ruling is expected soon.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses also filed lawsuits against the law.
Right now, most abortion facilities in Texas have stopped aborting unborn babies altogether, but a few still are aborting unborn babies up to about six weeks of pregnancy when the unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable.
While abortion activists say some women are traveling to other states for abortions, they admit that others are having their babies. Meanwhile, pro-life advocates are reaching out to pregnant women across Texas with compassion and understanding, offering resources and emotional support to help them and their babies. Earlier this year, state lawmakers increased support for pregnant and parenting mothers and babies, ensuring that they have resources to choose life for their babies.
In September, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Planned Parenthood’s and other pro-abortion groups’ request to temporarily block the Texas law. A few weeks ago, a federal judge refused to grant the Biden administration’s request to do the same.
About a dozen states have passed heartbeat laws to protect unborn babies from abortion, but Texas is the first to be allowed to enforce its law. Whether the law will remain in effect or ultimately be upheld as constitutional in court remains uncertain, but pro-life leaders are hopeful now that the Supreme Court has a conservative majority.
