A Texas state court Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed against a physician who violated Texas’s state law that bans abortions after six weeks.

A lawsuit was filed against Dr. Alan Braid claiming he violated the Texas state law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The six-week abortion ban took effect in September of last year. The law states that it “shall be enforced exclusively through the private civil actions.” Dr. Braid wrote an Op-Ed for the Washington Post about how he violated Texas’s abortion law. In the op-ed Dr. Braid states that he performed an abortion on September 6 and that he “fully understood that there could be legal consequences.”

The court dismissed the case finding that bystanders do not have legal standing to sue abortion providers because the bystander was not directly impacted.

Dr. Braid said in a released statement :

When I provided my patient with the care she needed last year, I was doing my duty as a physician. It is heartbreaking that Texans still can’t get essential health care in their home state and that providers are left afraid to do their jobs. Though we were forced to close our Texas clinic, I will continue serving patients across the region with the care they deserve at new clinics in Illinois and New Mexico.

In the op-ed Dr. Braid stated he “acted because [he] had a duty of care to this patient, as [he does] for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care.”

Although the Texas law remains in effect, the court has defined who can bring a lawsuit against an abortion provider. A written copy of the ruling is not yet available but is expected next week.