Blog Stage 7

A few weeks ago, I posted a critique of an article that covered some of the issues that arose from the passing and implementation of Texas' recent abortion legislation, House Bill 2.  Well, in the past few weeks this bill has been the catalyst of discussion throughout the state once again. 

              On April 17^th, two doctors, who operate two separate facilities that provide abortions for women in the Dallas area, filed a lawsuit against University General Hospital Dallas for revoking their admitting privileges to the hospital.  These privileges are now required by the state of Texas in order for the facility to legally be able to provide abortions, as a result of the aforementioned HB 2. 

The two doctors are alleging that University General Hospital Dallas discriminated against them by revoking their admitting privileges simply because the physicians provided abortion services at their facilities.  Unfortunately for the hospital, HB 2 has recently been the center of attention in a federal court case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit made the following statement in their opinion: “Both state and federal law prohibit hospitals from discriminating against physicians who perform abortions when they grant admitting privileges.”

Furthermore, some reports suggest that the hospital merely revoked the doctors' admitting privileges as a result of protestors threatening to, well, protest in order to save face with the community.  I’m not sure what I think is worse, the fact that the hospital may have caved to the demands of the protestors or the fact that they listened to and were concerned with the opinions of a few people in the community as opposed to being concerned with, oh I don’t know, providing the best healthcare they can to said community regardless of their beliefs.

As of now the Dallas County District Judge has temporarily reinstated the admitting privileges for the two facilities and is scheduled to have a hearing over the merit of the case at the end of the month.  Personally, I think these physicians should and will win the lawsuit, especially when you take into account that courts typically look to past cases and rulings when making their decisions.  Seeing as how this exact issue was just addressed so recently, I don’t even see the need for a case in the first place.

Commentary #1

I commented on Hunter Maddox's blog post about Texas' new high-speed rail system:

I agree! I think Texas could really benefit from having a better public transit system. As it stands, it seems like most of the public transit within the state (which isn't much to begin with) is focused on moving people within the boundaries of their respective cities, but I'd like to see more focus on connecting at least the major metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, I think in order to have a well functioning state-wide public transit system, it is inherent for the major cities within the state to have a good handle on their public transit system, which in our (Texas') case we are not doing so well at quite yet. Also, I don't get the impression that trains, railroads, or public transit is very, if at all, prevalent right now when it comes to Texas politics. Not that people are against it, I just think there are more "pressing issues" that unfortunately take away from things like this which could benefit the state as a whole.

Blog Stage Five

In the weeks preceding the primaries and even more so now that they’re over, Texas politicians across the state have been taking swings at one another in order to gain the upper hand in their respective races for public office.  Naturally, the media has mainly been focusing on the more popular races, primarily the Governor and Lt. Governor races, until recently.  One of the lesser talked about races set for the November elections is the battle for Texas Comptroller, the office which is essentially responsible for collecting taxes as well as certifying the amount of money the Texas legislature can appropriate in their budget (basically telling them how much they can plan to spend) has been in the headlines lately thanks to the nominees.  The story goes like this.  Glenn Heger, the Republican nominee for Texas Comptroller, says he wants to do away with property taxes in Texas and instead focus more on “consumption-based” taxes, for example sales tax.  His opponent and the Democrat’s nominee for Texas Comptroller, Mike Collier, is using Hegar’s comments against him in order to generate support for himself in the race.

While I do agree with Hergar on the notion that property taxes are something I could live without, (personally, I’d save about $200 a month) I don’t feel like we need to raise our sales tax, seeing as how we already have one of the highest sales taxes rates in the nation, possibly to offset the fact that we don’t have an income tax.  I think we have already just about whittled down all the existing tax avenues our state government can utilize and I don’t really think we can take away much more with out adding some in another area.  Not to mention, if we were to do away with property taxes, we would be taking the money away from our counties, municipalities and school districts, which rely on it as their primary means of funding.