Arkansas ACLU Sues Over Law Denying Health Care for Trans Youth

[Carolyn Marie]

https://www.thecabin.net/vanburen/aclu-sues-arkansas-over-ban-on-health-care-for-transgender-youth/article_3123b3b4-4874-5884-aeb4-11fa79b0fae4.html

 

The ACLU is going to be very, very busy this year.

 

Carolyn Marie

[Ivy]

Yup

[KayC]

On 6/2/2021 at 3:04 AM, Carolyn Marie said:

The ACLU is going to be very, very busy this year.

Yeah, but gotta love 'em though.

[Confused1]

Living in Arkansas, I truly hope they can turn this around. The law stopping blockers, hrt, and surgery for "children" is the one that dominates the headlines, but they also passed a law allowing doctors to refuse even basic healthcare for all transgender people, unless it is lifesaving. I asked my PCP about this 6 weeks ago and he told me I will never have an issue in his office, but he couldn't guarantee it elsewhere.

[mmspc]

1 hour ago, Confused1 said:

Living in Arkansas, I truly hope they can turn this around. The law stopping blockers, hrt, and surgery for "children" is the one that dominates the headlines, but they also passed a law allowing doctors to refuse even basic healthcare for all transgender people, unless it is lifesaving. I asked my PCP about this 6 weeks ago and he told me I will never have an issue in his office, but he couldn't guarantee it elsewhere.

As pertains the law relating to all transgender people, certainly if a law actually reads that way, it's more than unfortunate.  I'm curious though, is Arkansas that different from other states (excluding perhaps the uber-liberal ones)?  I was kinda under the impression that regardless of whether I am trans or cis, straight or gay, old or young, liberal or conservative---I can't just pick up the phone and schedule an appointment with any ol' physician.  Lots of reasons not to accept or reject seeing a patient, and it's difficult for me think that a such a "physicians' freedom of choice law" could cover all conceivable reasons for the acceptance or rejection. 

 

Yeah, the emergency "life-saving" care, I get that.  Regardless of how a provider feels about a particular population, if one barges into the office with critical emergency, yeah the provider has to do something, at least till the ambulance gets there.  That goes with the license to practice.

 

Best wishes in obtaining adequate healthcare.

[Carolyn Marie]

2 hours ago, mmspc said:

As pertains the law relating to all transgender people, certainly if a law actually reads that way, it's more than unfortunate. 

 

 

Such laws almost never actually read that way.  They couch the discriminatory language in terms of "conscience, religious liberty" and other, similarly nice-sounding ideas.  Aside from abortion, transgender people are the favorite target of such laws.  It may not say so in the text, but the politicians who promote these laws, and the hate groups who supply the bill language, frequently say the quiet part out loud.  Their purpose is not hard to discern.

 

Arkansas SB 289 reads as follows:

 

17-80-504. Right of conscience.17(a) A medical practitioner, healthcare institution, or healthcare 18payer:19(1) Has the right not to participate in a healthcare service20that violates his, her, or its conscience;21(2) Is not required to participate in a healthcare service that 22violates his, her, or its conscience;23(3) Is not civilly, criminally, or administratively liable for 24declining to participate in a healthcare service that violates his, her, or 25its conscience;

 

I would not be surprised if the current SCOTUS upholds this and similar bills.

 

Carolyn Marie

 

 

[MelanieTamara]

I swear these government and state legislatures are so inept. This law literally says in the most extreme case, a muslim doctor does not have to operate on a person of jewish faith or conversely, a jewish doctor does not have to operate on a patient of muslim faith....simply because it violates their concience. What a can of worms this law will open up. I mean really, the trans issue is one thing. But this law touches upon everything. Do they even think?

 

How did we get from cake baking to open heart surgery?

[Ivy]

2 hours ago, Carolyn Marie said:

I would not be surprised if the current SCOTUS upholds this and similar bills.

Me either

[Confused1]

2 hours ago, Carolyn Marie said:

 

Such laws almost never actually read that way.  They couch the discriminatory language in terms of "conscience, religious liberty" and other, similarly nice-sounding ideas.  Aside from abortion, transgender people are the favorite target of such laws.  It may not say so in the text, but the politicians who promote these laws, and the hate groups who supply the bill language, frequently say the quiet part out loud.  Their purpose is not hard to discern.

 

Arkansas SB 289 reads as follows:

 

17-80-504. Right of conscience.17(a) A medical practitioner, healthcare institution, or healthcare 18payer:19(1) Has the right not to participate in a healthcare service20that violates his, her, or its conscience;21(2) Is not required to participate in a healthcare service that 22violates his, her, or its conscience;23(3) Is not civilly, criminally, or administratively liable for 24declining to participate in a healthcare service that violates his, her, or 25its conscience;

 

I would not be surprised if the current SCOTUS upholds this and similar bills.

 

Carolyn Marie

 

 

 

This!    

My medical files now show I had "transgender surgery."  I had my GCS in another state, but I had to be cleared from here by my PCP first in order to get the surgery approved.  I won't have to say anything for them to decide it affects their conscience. I won't use the local hospital unless my life really does depend on it. I know what the attitudes are here. There is another hospital in a college town about 50 miles away that I feel might give me a more favorable reception. My oncologist is there, and LGBTQI friendly. I guess it depends on whether I can survive the drive. Such is life in the current political climate.

 

Hugs,

Mike

[MelanieTamara]

Great news. The Department of Justice looks to be tending towards ruling that the anti trans youth laws in Arkansas and West Virginia are unconstitutional.

 

https://www.axios.com/transgender-doj-west-virginia-sports-faac3ab2-68a8-43fd-a75f-94779fad247e.html

[Ivy]

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018867391/arkansas-trans-gender-confirming-treatment-judge-lawsuit

[Davie]

Yes.

"This ruling sends a clear message to states across the country that gender affirming care is life-saving care, and we won't let politicians in Arkansas — or anywhere else — take it away," said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas.

[Confused1]

Yes! I heard this late yesterday, but didn't have time to post it. I am friends with one of the moms involved that is local to me.  Sadly Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge plans to appeal the decision, so it may have to be fought again. Another judge gave a similar decision yesterday in a sports related case in West Virginia.

 

Hugs,

Mike

[Davie]

Yes. It's just one battle in a war, but there are many, many more trans folks and their allies than all those Attorney Generals—and we're growing in number every day. All that, and common sense, and common decency, and the U.S. Constitution are on our side. I like our odds in the long run.

 

—Davie