Texas doctor says he violated the state's strict new abortion law

A Texas doctor is publicly revealing that he violated a state law that bans abortions after six weeks and says he is inviting legal challenges under the controversial law, which has so far withstood efforts by pro-abortion rights supporters to block it.

"On the morning of Sept. 6, I provided an abortion to a woman who, though still in her first trimester, was beyond the state's new 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," Dr. Alan Braid, a physician in San Antonio, Texas, wrote in an op-ed published Saturday in The Washington Post.

"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," he wrote.