What Happens When Women's Rights are Attacked

April 3, 2023

Apr 03, 2023

Healthcare Reform

April 3, 2023

Good Morning Healthcare Advocates

Thank you for reading and taking action and educating others on the need for healthcare reform. Thank you also for recommending topics to research (use the comment button below). Topics in work are the hospice situation, prison healthcare, and healthcare funding. There will also be an article on insurance pre-authorization and claims denial and what to do about it.

Good News

The first rural hospitals are now converting to a new Emergency Rural Hospital designation and will be able to access federal funds to avoid closure. The designation comes from Section 125 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and establishes ‘Rural Emergency Hospital’ as a new Medicare provider type aiming to reduce health disparities in rural areas. according to Protect Our Care’s Storyteller Corps.

More Good News

The New Mexico Supreme Court blocked local anti-abortion ordinances Friday, March 31st, pending the outcome of a case centered on constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. The ruling granted a request by Democratic state Attorney General Raúl Torrez and follows the state’s recent adoption of a new abortion rights bill signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, just weeks ago, overrides any local ordinances aimed at limiting access to abortion procedures and medications. (Link)

Abortion Under Attack

We mentioned a few weeks ago that a hospital in Idaho is closing its Obstetrics department because of the issues with Idaho’s near total ban on abortion. (link)

Here is an article, March 2023, by Dr. John M. Werdel, the women’s service line medical director at St. Luke’s Health System in Idaho. His network sees 30 complicated pregnancies each week. These are pregnancies that risk the health of the mother or have fatal fetal abnormalities. These pregnancies can require abortion care to preserve the mother’s life and fertility and doctors are scared to do it for fear of criminal prosecution.

As a result of the Taliban-like rules implemented by Idaho, his network has been unable to recruit any physicians since the summer of 2022. Doctors don’t want to practice if they have to fear prison for providing normal medical care.

In the last six months, three of the maternal fetal medicine physicians (high-risk pregnancy specialists) in Idaho have decided to leave the state.

A recent survey in Idaho shows that more than 45% of obstetrical-gynecological physicians are currently considering or exploring relocation out of Idaho.

Dr. Werdel appeals to legislators to turn it around before it is too late.

“Obstetrical care is complex, and a nuanced approach is required. If we do not rewrite these laws during this legislative session, we will lose more physicians. Recruitment will remain difficult if not impossible. This will lead to provider shortages, increased access issues, substandard and unsafe care.”

Provider shortages - unable to care for patients and patients dying because there is no one to provide suitable medically accepted care. Because legislators, who are not doctors, behave like the Taliban and treat women as incompetent second class citizens unable to make decisions for themselves. Is that who we are. No.

Federal Help Needed

For the 7th time the House Democrats have submitted a bill to protect abortion rights, the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would enshrine federal abortion rights, among other protections to abortion access. The bill, re-introduced in the House for the seventh time, would legally protect providing and accessing abortion care nationwide for patients and abortion providers. It also includes proposed protections for interstate travel for abortion care, as well as for people who assist others in accessing abortion care. (Link)

ACTION

TEXT SIGN PITWML to 50409 tell your representative in Congress to support the Women’s Health Protection Act.

I want you to support the Women’s Health Protection Act. Women are fully capable of making their own decisions about their own bodies. This is not a country ruled by an autocracy that gets to treat women as less than human. I want you to restore our rights now. Cosponsor and support the Women’s Health Protection Act. How many women will you let die before you take action?