Thursday, December 21, 2023

Nope. No Way.

That is the answer that a hospital gave the Texas Attorney General office that requested medical records for a trans patient.
The Seattle Children’s Hospital filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court on Dec. 7 against the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG), after that agency requested documents related to gender transition policies and any such care provided to Texas children.

However, hospital claims that the OAG lacks jurisdiction to demand such records from the hospital, and that Washington’s “Shield Law” protects it from requests made by states that “restrict or criminalize reproductive and gender-affirming care.”

“The Shield Law prohibits Washington-based entities such as Seattle Children’s from ‘[c]omply[ing] with subpoena, warrant, court order, or other civil or criminal legal process for records, information, facilities, or assistance related to protected health care services that are lawful in the state of Washington,'” the lawsuit stated.
I’m not a lawyer but it seems to me that no hospital has to turn over their patients for something that is not a crime in their state. What Texas asked for was…
That demand gave the hospital until Dec. 7 to produce documents to the OAG for the agency to identify the following:
  • All medications prescribed by the hospital to Texas children
  • The number of Texas children treated by the hospital
  • Diagnosis for every medication provided by the hospital to Texas children
  • Texas laboratories that performed lab tests for the hospital prior to prescribing medications
  • Protocol/guidance for treating Texas children diagnosed with gender identity disorder, gender dysphoria or endocrine disorders
  • Protocol/guidance on how to “wean” a Texas child off gender transitioning care
The other demand gave the same deadline date for the hospital to answer questions about the above points under oath.
In Connecticut our shield law was written broadly on purpose to say any records that involves reproductive health which our healthcare includes.
Along a similar line, the hospital’s attorneys claim that such an investigation violates the U.S. Constitution’s dormant Commerce Clause, which prevents States from enforcing “protectionist” laws that would erode a national marketplace.
Sorry Charlie… no way!

I see this case going all the to the Supreme Court. I see the hospital being tried in Texas for refusing to comply with the subpoena and the hospital thumbing their nose at Texas. Then the appeals start and since it is between two states the case will land in the federal court system.
 

 
 In another article, this one about trans athletes…
Cyclists Call Out Transphobic Critics: “We Refuse to be Falsely Presented as Victims”
KRISTEN CHALMERS SAID SHE WAS “PAINTED AS A VICTIM IN A NARRATIVE MANUFACTURED TO FUEL TRANSPHOBIA” AFTER THE ILLINOIS STATE CYCLOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Bicycling
BY MICAH LING
Dec 20, 2023


The Illinois State Cyclocross Championships took place the first weekend of December. Tessa Johnson and Evelyn Williamson took first and second place respectively, in the women’s single speed category. Kristen Chalmers took third place. It was a relatively small race in the scheme of things. But as news spread that trans women had earned gold and silver, outrage took over.

National and international publications began covering the event—but with an emphasis on the fact that the top two finishers were trans women. The Daily Mail wrote that, “Megyn Kelly simply called the incident ‘infuriating,’ while tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote on X: ‘More mediocre male bodies taking podium places from female athletes. And it stinks!!!!’”

So Chalmers spoke up, calling out the headlines and defending her competitors and friends. Chalmers was upset not only with how people judged and sized up others, but also with how they made assumptions about her.

[…]

Chalmers went on to say, “Having images of and presumptions about my body and speculations about my reaction to the race being so publicly discussed was uncomfortable but what made it unacceptable was being painted as a victim in a narrative manufactured to fuel transphobia. While strangers’ online offers to personally pay me my ‘rightful’ $100 prize money in exchange for my boycott of future inclusive cycling events were almost comical, they demonstrated how out-of-context moments like our single-speed podium can be leveraged to keep people emotionally invested in transphobia.”

[…]

Chalmers told Bicycling, “Within 48 hours [of writing the letter], all of the cis-women racers in the Illinois Single Speed Championships signed it, along with 56 others who race in the women’s categories of the CCC. For context, 54 women competed in the Chicago Cross Cup’s Illinois State Championship races.”
It is the right-wing trouble-makers that are trying to stir the pot and rile up their base, the other athletes have no problem with trans athletes, only the outsiders agitators who have a problem with trans athletes.

1 comment:

  1. Why are conservatives wasting so much time, money and resources on issues that affect so few people. The impact of enforcement is virtually nil because there are so few of us to begin with.

    ReplyDelete