Texas is Fabricating Abortion Data

[Nevilledog]

https://jessica.substack.com/p/texas-is-fabricating-abortion-data

Sue sobbed as she entered her patient’s personal information into the state website: Date of birth, county of residence, last menstrual period. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services even wanted to know whether the woman was married, and how many children she had.

“Reporting every detail of that woman’s information, the fact that I was putting any of it in...it was devastating to me as a physician,” she says.

Sue, a pseudonym, is an emergency medicine physician at a major Texas city hospital. Ever since Roe was overturned and the state’s trigger law went into effect, Sue and other Texas doctors have been required to submit patients’ private medical information into a state-run website without their knowledge or consent—adhering to a mandate that forces them to report women as suffering from abortion complications even when they’re not.

This rarely reported on section of Texas law lists 28 medical issues as abortion complications—conditions that reproductive health experts point out often have nothing to do with abortion. Still, doctors are required to tell the state about any woman who develops one of these issues if she happens to have had an abortion at any point in her life.

Doctors who don’t make these reports can be fined for each ‘violation’; after three violations, they could lose their license. Sue, who got conflicting and often confusing guidance from the large health system that runs her hospital and dozens of others in the state, was terrified not to comply. “For all I knew, I could be one that [Attorney General] Ken Paxton made an example of,” she says.

*snip*

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Christopher Webb
@cwebbonline
·
Follow
🚨Texas Republicans are up to no good again.

They know that public opinion is not on their side so they’re pushing false abortion data to make it seem as though abortion-care is unsafe.

*Doctors are being forced to report fake abortion ‘complications’ under threat of losing… Show more


8:49 AM · May 5, 2023

I'm at a loss for words.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Who is surprised by this?

Link to tweet

[peppertree]

4. Exactly. They fabricate election results - so it only stands to reason they'd fabricate health data.

Tax return figures too, no doubt.

[yonder]

13. The dry Texas plain is soaking up the tears shed by Ann and Molly.

[Warpy]

19. No one who has ever known born yesterday southern Baptists

They honestly believe in being "saved," and after that one event, they can lie, cheat, steal, and even murder with impunity, especially when they think they're doing it for Jebus.

It's sickening. A few are like Jimmy Carter. Most are definitely not, from little congregations to mega churches.

[Biophilic]

2. And every time they fill out those forms they are betraying their Hippocratic oaths.

They are also betraying their fellow citizens most especially their fellow woman. How close is this to people betraying their Jewish neighbors to the Nazis? And no, I don’t think I’m over the top. Being willing to turn your patients into the state even though you are aware that the information is wrong because the law dictates it is the beginning of a truly fascist state very similar to Germany in the mid 30s. I feel for this doctor. I can hear and feel her fear, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong.

[slightlv]

8. I agree with you 100%

and I don't think you're being over the top! In fact, since it seems Texas and Florida leads the Red State way these days, I expect the other Red states (including mine) to be doing this soon -- if they aren't already and are just doing it in secret. KS anti-women and politicos are still p'o'd we killed the misogynistic law they tried to get past us. I wouldn't put anything past these women-hating men (and their female accomplices).

[Shipwack]

9. I agree, and am seeing so much if this, but I get pushback.

I agree that fascism shouldn’t be cooperated with. I have nothing but disgust for physicians that will standby until a woman is passing the threshold of Death’s door because they are afraid of having their care questioned.

But then someone points out that these are people who have mortgages and families that depend on them, so being brave might not be an option….

SMH

I dunno. I know how I’ve failed to stand up in the past sometimes, so maybe that’s why I get so angry when others don’t.

In any event, we’re drifting toward fascism, and some people are actively rowing toward it. I fear things will get much worse before they get better, even for me, a hetero-appearing middle class white guy. It’ll be much worse for others.

[Biophilic]

11. Yes, and I suspect that people in Germany in the mid '30s had mortgages and other bills.

Most had no idea of what was happening and what was to come. We have both. We have knowledge and forewarning and yet we seem to be falling into the same horrible trap. The only difference is that we know what happens next.

[h2ebits]

12. You are correct. . . .

I'd like to post your comment on Facebook with the above article. Would that be ok with you? If not, please let me know. If okay, please let me know how you would like to have me acknowledge the comment.

[Biophilic]

14. That would be fine. I'm not on Facebook so please do whatever feels right for you.

[h2ebits]

17. Done! and thanks.

I copied and pasted in the remarks section of the article on FB giving credit as follows:

Copied from Democratic Underground with permission to post by author Biophilic.

!!!!!!

[Biophilic]

18. Looks good to me. 👍

[wnylib]

24. This is the central point of the 1960 film

It's about judges and the legal system in Nazi Germany instead of today's doctors and medical system in the US, but the parallels are strong.

In that film, judges from Nazi Germany are put on trial after the war for sentencing people to concentration camps over violations of unjust laws. They knew that the laws were unjust, that the evidence was often fabricated, and that the concentration camps were so harsh that few people survived.

At the end of the film, a judge (Burt Lancaster) who was a well respected legal expert prior to the Nazis tells Spencer Tracy (a Tribunal justice), that he never thought it would get so terrible. Tracy's answer is that it got that bad with the very first ruling that the judge knew was wrong but went along with.

I understand that doctors go into very deep debt for their education, spend a decade in education and training to be certified, have mortgages and families to support. They have very difficult decisions to make.

I wonder if doctors could band together to take a professional stand on giving ob/gyn patients quality care regardless of the law. To do that, they would need a legal firm or organization (ACLU) to represent them. They would also need a source of financial backing like some supportive organizations, and even go fund me accounts for them to survive the ordeal. They would need publicists to get the message out about why they are taking a stand on patient treatment, e.g. to save lives in emergencies and to refuse to report false info - or any info - on their patients to the state government.

It might work best with young doctors who don't yet have a family and mortgage. OTOH, older doctors have the gravitas of experience and wisdom in their medical decisions. Or, a few doctors who are licensed in more than one state might be able to risk their license in one state over unjust ob/gyn laws and continue to practice in another state where those laws don't exist.

I don't see any other way of ending the current cruel injustice than for medical professionals to band together on mutual support against the laws.

I hope that there are some doctors, nurses, PAs, etc. who are able and willing to do this.

[peppertree]

3. It's a whooooole other country

Just not the well-run kind.

[ancianita]

5. Face the fact: they will forever fabricate data to suit their political & economic purposes.

Not for nothing, Democrats are still pushing for a pro-doctor federal law that would trump state laws.

https://www.menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/press/sen-menendez-colleagues-reintroduce-legislation-to-ensure-doctors-can-provide-legal-abortion-care-protect-providers-from-out-of-state-extremists

The Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act will ensure that providers in states where abortion remains legal are protected from any efforts to restrict their practice or create uncertainty about their legal liability. Specifically, the bill will:

Protect health care providers in states where abortion is legal from being subject to laws that try to prevent them from providing reproductive health care services or make them liable for providing those services to patients from any other state.

These protections could be enforced by a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice, a patient, or a provider, ensuring a future Department of Justice could not turn a blind eye to state laws that violate these protections;

Prohibit any federal funds from being used to pursue legal cases against individuals who access legal reproductive health care services or against health care providers in states where abortion is legal;

Create a new grant program at the Department of Justice to fund legal assistance or legal education for reproductive health care service providers;

Create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to support reproductive health care service providers in obtaining physical, cyber, or data privacy security upgrades necessary to protect their practice and patients; and

Protect reproductive health care providers from being denied professional liability insurance coverage solely because of legal health services offered to patients.


In addition to Senators Menendez and Murray, the legislation is also co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The legislation has been endorsed by: Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, National Partnership for Women & Families, Power to Decide, National Council of Jewish Women, National Women’s Law Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and NARAL.

[JanLip]

6. I would advise

Young women to get the hell out of Texas. There will prolly lose doctors because of this. I hope people realize this is what happens when Republicans get control. And this will prolly spread to other red states. Mine included.

Jan

[ancianita]

7. I agree. Still, Congress and federal rule of law should still fight to protect them

even when they go to where abortion and related services are legal.

[world wide wally]

20. Florida is the testing ground to see just how far they can push their unAmerican agenda

[ShazzieB]

21. I'm pretty sure they're already losing doctors.

Among other things, I saw a report on how teaching hospitals in red states with extreme abortion laws are starting to have trouble filling slots in their OB/GYN residency programs. Gee whiz, who would have ever imagined that medical school grads wouldn't be panting for a chance to train in OB/GYN in a state where the established standards of care for pregnancy complications have literally been outlawed? *shocked pikachu face*

I'm sure that's only the tip of the "red states losing doctors" iceberg, but I think it's a significant development. Texas (and other red state) Repugs will no doubt choose to ignore the trickle of doctors leaving their states (or avoiding them altogether) for as long as they can. Eventually that trickle will become a stream that's too large to ignore, and they'll wake up to the fact that their states are hemorrhaging doctors. In the meantime, innocent people will suffer, and some will die.

But hey, look at all the nonviable fetuses that will get to have a few extra days or weeks in a uterus or a fallopian tube until the owners of those organs get sick enough to meet the state's draconian standards for allowing their nonviable pregnancies to be terminated! What a great victory for "life," right?

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R

[OMGWTF]

15. Fuck the south. Lincoln was wrong.

[marble falls]

16. No doubt in my mind. I have never believed their claims of how many abortions were performed in ...

... years ppast. Sometimes it seemed they were claiming there were more abortions than births.

[Hassler]

22. How do you spell STASI in English? Texas.

[IbogaProject]

23. Small (minded) Government

They sure love to claim freedom, personal responsibility and keeping the government off our backs, but when they are in power they seem to push the exact opposite.

[Skittles]

25. more fascism

surprise surprise