HOUSTON, TEXAS – An ex-Southern Baptist pastor in the state of Texas is being accused of molesting a teenage relative repeatedly and has been arrested on child sex abuse charges, the Associated Press reported.
The alleged abuser is Stephen Bratton, who supported legislation in Texas that would have made it a crime to have an abortion.
According to The Houston Chronicle, a Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said Bratton was allegedly engaging in inappropriately touching his relative that eventually escalated into “sexual intercourse multiple times a day or several times a week” between the years 2013 and 2015.
43-year-old Stephen Bratton posted a $50,000 bond and has been released from the county jail, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Back in May, Mr. Bratton told his wife about the abuse and also told co-pastors at his Grace Family Baptist Church the same day confessing he “sinned in grievous ways,” according to court documents that AP obtained.
It is unknown if Bratton has an attorney available for comment, and AP was unable to find a number for Bratton on Sunday.
This past April, Mr. Bratton spoke publicly in favor of the Texas bill that failed, which would’ve made it possible for women to be charged with the crime of homicide for terminating pregnancies.
“Whoever authorizes or commits murder is guilty. They’re guilty already in a court that is far more weighty than what is here in Texas,” Bratton stated at a hearing for the legislation, the Associated Press reported.
