A former Southern Baptist pastor who once backed strict anti-abortion legislation in Texas has been charged with repeatedly molesting a teenage relative over the course of two years, sometimes several times a day, court records show.

Stephen Bratton, who stepped down last month from Grace Family Baptist Church in Houston, was arrested Friday after a juvenile relative said they had sex “multiple times a day or several times a week” between 2013 and 2015, Harris County Sheriff’s Office Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliland told the Houston Chronicle.

Bratton confessed to his wife about the alleged abuse last month, prompting her to contact his co-pastors at 4 a.m. to organize an emergency meeting. Bratton waited until later that day to admit that he had “sinned in grievous ways,” the newspaper reports.

Church officials said in a statement Sunday that Bratton admitted on May 16 to “sexually abusing a minor in an ongoing way,” leading church elders to file a police report that same day.

“This is the first time this had been brought to the attention of the pastors,” the statement read. “This activity is wrong according to Biblical and civil law and the church condemns the behavior as abhorrent.”

Bratton was excommunicated by the church days later and is no longer receiving a salary, according to the statement.

“The elders have called upon Stephen Bratton to accept full responsibility for his actions and to place himself at the mercy of the criminal justice system,” the statement read. ”Currently we are working to meet the needs of the family and the victim. We have deep grief for the victim and have sought to respect the privacy and identity of the victim throughout this process.”

One pastor at Bratton’s former church, meanwhile, is now questioning the father of seven’s past as a clergyman in light of the allegations.

“This person’s life is in such a contradiction to the faith that we see no evidence that they are a Christian,” co-pastor Aaron Wright told the Chronicle.

Bratton recently voiced his support for a failed Texas bill that would have abolished abortions throughout the state if passed and allow prosecutors to file criminal homicide charges against any woman who underwent the procedure.

“Whoever authorizes or commits murder is guilty,” Bratton said in public testimony at a hearing in April. “They’re guilty already in a court that is far more weighty than what is here in Texas.”

Bratton, who was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, has been released from custody after posting $50,000 bond, sheriff officials said. Attempts to reach him or an attorney representing him were unsuccessful.

He was seen carrying a Bible outside a Harris County courtroom early Monday, KRIV reports.

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