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.