287 Comments

Silly me. And I thought the Supremacy clause meant that Federal law overrode any local laws. EMTALA is a federal law, is it not?

And a hearty fuck you goes out to Ken Paxton from out here in not so sunny SoCal.

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Because the header photo is of my Babby Axl - who is now hale and hearty - I’m going to re-post a version of a response I made below:

Alone. Abandoned. Afraid.

Yet, this 3 week-old kitten in Texas was able to get the lifesaving healthcare he needed.

Don’t Texas women deserve at least as much?

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Ta, Dok. If you value your life and the lives of the people you love, vote a straight Democratic ticket, every election, every year.

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Just FYI, Texas got rid of straight-ballot voting, I believe after the 2008 election (when most of our major cities turned blue).

When I voted in 2022, I had to vote for 101 different candidates (mostly judges) and propositions/bond issues. Which meant hitting the screen over 200 times (once to vote for a candidate, and then to click next. Voter suppression - in all its forms - is a very real thing.

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It's become increasingly evident that the Fifth District Court of Appeal as well as the State of Texas should be abolished.

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The fifth circuit court should be aborted.

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Fucking madness.

I sincerely hope Kate Cox never returns to that shithole, because they'll throw her in jail.

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Chilling. Texas deserves so much better.

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Texas women deserve better. Texas needs a quick kick to the naughty bits.

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EMTALA is not a treatment statute - it is an anti-dumping statute. It was created to prevent turfing people to the street in an unstable condition after a bad wallet biopsy.

If a doctor believes that an abortion is needed for stabilization they are still dangling out there because the state will show up with "experts" to say that it wasn't - that more antibiotics or transfusions would have "stabilized" the sepsis or bleeding.

The lawsuit currently chugging along to have courts enshrine "best medical judgment" is equally useless for the same reason.

"The battle of the experts" is one thing in medmal litigation where all that is at stake is money, but in these states the doctor's freedom is on the line, up to a life sentence, and no law can correct for the fact that abortion is presumed to be illegal, making any exception narrow and hard to apply.

The best advice that I can give to these doctors as an MD/JD is to leave...

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James Ho and the Ho Hos strike again. Wouldn't want to cause ER docs the "aesthetic displeasure" of saving a woman's life--that's just gross.

The Fifth Circuit is obscene.

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I hear from medical colleagues in red states that they are being heavily recruited by practices and hospitals in blue states. Most I know are considering leaving, especially ER docs and the ON/Gyns.

It is simple:

National shortage of physicians means openings in blue states.

Blue states are not coming after your license/livelihood/freedom.

Many are quietly relocating.

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I am a medical professional with over 15 years experience in an emergency department and I can tell you I would never, not in a million years, work in an institution, or state, that told me I couldn’t save a patients life that could be saved. It is monstrously unethical and I can assure you they will bleed practitioners, and when they do, they will sit around scratching their heads and wonder what went wrong.

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Thank you. I'm a Care Coordinator for HIV positive adults in a federally qualified health center. I just finished a course (for certification) from IHI on quality improvement in healthcare, and most of it centers on patient safety. How are patients ever to be safe if they can't access lifesaving treatment?

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This is what happens when Republican christofascists pick judges. Punish these fascists and vote them out of office this fall. Your mission is the same as we succeeded in 2020 and 2022, outnumber the fascists and their supporters at the polls.

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I need that kitteh and I need it NOW. Thanks.

Please, Texas. Grow the fuck up.

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That kitteh is MY Babby Axl, so you can’t have him! Wonkette already used two other photos of him on Tuesday. I posted about his back story here:

https://substack.com/@2cats2furious/note/c-46488627?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knok4

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REPUBLICANS in Texas. There's a difference. Democrats don't vote for that bullshit.

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Texas, grow the fuck up about everything: women’s healthcare, black and brown people voting, gun humpers, white supremacists, the border and immigration, criminals in charge of your legal system, and your asshole governor. You’ve made your state the hell on earth we always knew it was headed for.

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I think Babby Axle was perhaps the cutest kitten I have ever seen. That is all.

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🥰

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Just cut off their federal funding. I understand from a certain former dude that whatever the President does is legal so make it so Dark Brandon. Of course I'm being facetious but Jesus Fucking Christ all of these dipshits in TX who don't vote kinda deserve this nonsense. The demographics say this is a blue state if people would register and turn out. They don't so it's gerrymandered to hell and back but ... Gahhhhhhhhhh

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Ken Paxton deserves a special hell.

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And he shouldn't have to wait for death to send him there.

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