Texas abortion law facing pushback

The restrictive Texas abortion law known as SB 8 is facing challenges on various fronts.

More than 50 companies signed a letter Tuesday stating that SB 8, which became law on Sept 1, threatens the health and economic stability of their workers and customers.

A well-known screen writer said he will seek a location outside Texas that looks like Dallas to film a miniseries based on Texas events.

Two people filed lawsuits against a Texas doctor for performing an abortion violating SB 8, with their ultimate intent to have the law declared unconstitutional.

The Texas law bans the aborting of fetuses with a heartbeat detectable by ultrasound —  which is usually around six weeks. That effectively prohibits almost all abortions because most women are unaware they are pregnant at that point. 

Companies including Yelp, Lyft, VICE Media Group, Ben & Jerry's and Reddit that signed the letter represent about 129,000 employees nationwide.

"Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health, independence and economic stability of our employees and customers," the companies said in the letter. 

"Simply put, it goes against our values and is bad for business. It impairs our ability to build diverse and inclusive workforce pipelines, recruit top talent across the states, and protect the well-being of all the people who keep our businesses thriving day in and out," the letter said.

The letter also said the Texas law puts gender equality, families, communities, businesses and the economy "at risk", adding: "We stand against policies that hinder people's health, independence and ability to fully succeed in the workplace."

David Simon, creator of the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, tweeted Monday that he won't film a Texas miniseries in the state because of SB 8.

"I'm turning in scripts next month on an HBO non-fiction miniseries based on events in Texas, but I can't and won't ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there. What else looks like Dallas/Fort Worth?"

Fort Worth resident Mark Knochel criticized Simon's decision to look for a location outside Texas by tweeting: "David Simon is blissfully unaware that the largest cities in Texas (where he'd probably be filming) are bastions of Blue (liberal leaning)."

Simon said he loves Austin, San Antonio and Houston, but that it was not a political decision.  

He said it is not for him, a man, to measure the risk to women or the affront to their civil liberties. "We stage production where women risk nothing and endure nothing to control their own bodies. Those places exist with adequate facilities to film," he said.

Two people outside of Texas have filed lawsuits against a San Antonio doctor who publicly admitted that he performed an abortion deemed illegal under SB 8. The plaintiffs' objective is to have the law overturned in a court hearing.

The OB-GYN doctor, Alan Braid, wrote an opinion piece, "Why I violated Texas's Extreme Abortion Ban" that appeared Saturday in The Washington Post, citing personal experience of seeing three teenage girls die from illegal abortions in 1972 when abortion was effectively illegal in Texas.

Braid wrote that he had provided an abortion to a woman beyond Texas' new time limit. "I acted because I had a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care."

Braid also wrote about a 42-year-old woman, with four children, three under 12. To avoid violating SB 8, she was advised to drive nine hours to Oklahoma. However, she couldn't because she can't miss work and needs to take care of her children, she said.

Oscar Stilley, self-described as "a disbarred and disgraced former Arkansas lawyer" who is currently on home confinement for "tax evasion", sued Braid for $100,000 on Monday. 

In his complaint filed in the court, Stilley described Braid the defendant as "kind and patient and helpful toward bastards" and the defendant's acts "contribute mightily to human happiness and the advancement of human society".

Illinois resident Felipe Gomez, self-described pro-choice plaintiff, also filed a lawsuit against Braid on Monday.  

However, Gomez said in his complaint that he "files this suit against Defendant, MOVES the Court to declare that the Act [Texas Heartbeat Act] is Unconstitutional, and in violation of Roe v Wade."

Court records obtained by KSAT 12, an ABC affiliate in San Antonio, noted that Gomez's license to practice law in Illinois was suspended indefinitely on April 8 after he was accused of sending threatening and harassing emails to other attorneys. 

Earlier this month, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit seeking an immediate and permanent injunction to prohibit enforcing Texas Heartbeat Act, stating that "the act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent".