Stephen Bratton was charged Friday with continuous sexual abuse of a child

A former Southern Baptist pastor who supported legislation in Texas that would have criminalized abortions has been arrested for child sex abuse.

Stephen Bratton, who resigned from the Grace Family Baptist Church in Cypress Station last month, was charged Friday with continuous sexual abuse of a child.

The 43-year-old is accused of molesting a teenage relative over the span of several years, according to The Houston Chronicle.

Speaking on Friday, a law enforcement official revealed that Bratton is alleged to have inappropriately touched the teen before the contact 'escalated to sexual intercourse multiple times a day or several times a week'.

The reported abuse took place between 2013 and 2015.

According to The Houston Chronicle, Bratton is said to have told his wife of his crimes on May 15.

She is then reported to have contacted his co-pastors, before they met with Bratton who admitted that he had 'sinned in grievous ways'.

The co-pastors went to the police on the same day, and an investigation was launched.

Bratton was arrested Friday, before he was charged and released on a $50,000 bond the following day

He was finally arrested Friday, before he was charged and released on a $50,000 bond the following day.

Bratton has since been excommunicated from the church, and is no long receiving a salary.

His wife and seven children are no long living with him.

Earlier this year, Bratton was outspoken in support of a bill that would have abolished abortions in Texas and threatened charging women who undergo the procedure with homicide.

Bratton cited the Bible in his support for the bill put forward by Republican Tony Tinderholt.

'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 said at the time, according to The Inquisitor.