Okay, posts moved. Let’s not have any more chatter about the wealth (or lack thereof) of hospitals in this thread. Sorry for participating in that hijack.
Take it here:
https://community-new.goactuary.com/t/the-wealth-of-hospitals/8710?u=lucy
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Here’s an on-topic remark, then.
A very, very close friend of mine had an extremely serious birth defect diagnosed in utero. The doctor who first talked to her about it was much, much, much more interested in getting her to pick his hospital to correct the birth defect, rather than mentioning that she only had a few more weeks to consider an abortion. (He also made it sound slightly less serious than she eventually realized it was after talking to others, by giving a low estimate as to the number of surgeries needed over the lifetime of this issue, and by not mentioning that these surgeries would involve months in the hospital for each one.) His hospital was not well known for expertise in the area, (as she later found out), and she can only guess that he wanted to build up expertise.
By the time she realized she had only a few more weeks, (she’s pretty sheltered), as well as the true seriousness of the thing, those weeks were over.
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Ok. NY Times today had an extensive inside look at the activities within the SC leading up to the Roe v Wade decision. What a dog’s breakfast! A long article and I had to bail out before finishing it. Link to gifted article:
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My own suspicion here is that it was Alito himself who leaked the draft (likely through various intermediaries for plausible deniability).
For religious right-wingers like Alito, the only thing that truly matters is winning. “The ends justify the means” when you have an absolutist religious view of life in general.
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Basically we’re at the point of:
If you live in Texas and are considering starting a family, do your best to save up and move out of Texas before becoming pregnant. If you’re in Texas and done having kids, schedule sterilization ASAP because you don’t want to become accidentally pregnant. If you’re considering moving to Texas, have any kids before you do so. Then get sterilized. If you’re already in Texas and not ready to be sterile, make sure you use 2 forms of birth control.
Anything else is an unnecessary risk to your life. Unfortunately, those not privileged enough to leave Texas need to choose between their safety and having a family.
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Note that several Texas counties are also moving to make it illegal to pass through their counties or to facilitate women passing through their counties when traveling to seek an abortion.
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Congress (in the 90s): Hospitals have to provide medically necessary ER care.
Dobbs decision comes down.
Texas: Bans abortion
Biden administration: Hospitals still have to provide medically necessary ER care, even if that involves abortion.
Texas: Nope
Biden administration: Dude, it’s the law.
5th circuit: Nuh uh.
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The Texas plaintiffs argument that medical treatment is historically subject to police power of the States is convincing
This is chilling. Not even trying to play that game anymore where we refuse to talk about abortion being lifesaving healthcare. That bit doesn’t matter. All that matters is the state can police your medical care, and they don’t give a shit about you.
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This goes so far beyond the Handmaid’s Tale crap they have been working toward. It’s really scary how quickly this is progressing.
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I will be curious to see the residency of women in Texas over time.
I think the number of women leaving Texas for this will be small but not completely insignificant. It’s obviously easier for the wealthy to move, and also easier for them to get an abortion regardless of Texas law.
However, I think the number of women refusing to move to Texas and place themselves at a higher risk of death to start a family will be greater. I can’t speculate how much but I see Texas being somewhat of a sausage fest in a decade or so. Women who’ve had the children they want (or are just post-menopause) won’t have much reason to care (for their own health that is), but young women who might have babies in their foreseeable future may think twice.
I certainly wouldn’t move to Texas for a job anymore. It wouldn’t have been my first choice but now it’s just not an option.
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The twist being that at some point in Texas history, hospitals were probably NOT providing emergency care to some patients, cuz not white, couldn’t pay, or some other very important reason.
Friend of a friend recently got a job offer from UT. It’s pretty much his dream job, but he’s going to be spending the next 2 years living in a different state and commuting until his trans daughter graduates from high school.
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The stated goals of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act are more focused on economic discrimination, as hospitals would turn away patients they didn’t expect to profit from.
I’m certain that some doctors discriminated racially, and economic discrimination inherently has a disparate impact on POC.
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Most of the states closest to UT’s main campus aren’t ones I would guess to be trans-friendly either. I mean, I don’t specifically know, but Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana don’t strike me as being likely to be especially woke in that regard. But I suppose there’s the southeast corner of New Mexico to consider…
Bump for some FL residents understanding the word “Freedom”:
Tangential Peeve: Google keeps posting stories to media that want money from me. The latest trick is to hide the “close” or “not now” choice outside the shown area. The solution is to minimize until you see it, click it, then remaximize.
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Can’t think of any word that is misused or misunderstood more than freedom.
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Maybe Christian?
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A “Reader Mode” extension should get around popup soft paywalls like that. Bonus that it removes ads.
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In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the fight against abortion has played out on two fronts: political efforts to implement bans in individual red states and legal efforts to prohibit the use of abortion pills everywhere.
But anti-abortion activists have their eyes on a bigger prize: If former President Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House, they hope and expect that he’ll effectively ban abortions throughout the United States by prohibiting the shipment not just of abortion drugs, but any tools doctors could use to induce an abortion.
They’re pinning their hopes on the Comstock Act, a series of laws enacted in 1873 that prohibit the shipment of “every article or thing designed, adapted or intended for producing abortion.” The law was essentially unenforceable during the Roe era, but a federal judge in Texas ruled in 2023 that the Comstock Act prohibits the shipment of the two drugs used in more than half of all abortions today.
For anti-abortion activists, that’s just the beginning.
I’m kind of person who would make a list of everything used to produce an abortion, go to court and demand that shipment of all those items and materials be immediately prohibited under the Comstock Act, and see how quickly courts decide “oh wait, we don’t mean those things, that’s different because … look, we’re trying to enforce religious ideas on the masses, just shut the fuck up.”
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