In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Woman faced with deportation after going in for her gyn appointment

Do you remember the movie Heathers? I doubt it could get made now, but it came out before the modern wave of school shootings, and I watched it over and over again (until my parents got worried and took my copy away from me; then I watched it at my best friend’s house), drunk with the fantasy of a cool boyfriend who offs the popular kids (also, the main character’s name is the mark of a quality story). For that hour and a half, Christian Slater was the cutest boy in the world.

Anyway, there’s a great scene in the beginning when the school’s two king jocks, Kurt and Ram, decide to harass JD (Slater doing his best Jack Nicholson impression), the new kid in town. [content note for homophobic language]

“Hey, Ram,” says Kurt. “Doesn’t this cafeteria have a ‘no fags allowed’ rule?”
“Well,” says JD, “they certainly seem to have an open-door policy on assholes, don’t they?”

That’s what this country’s attitude toward immigration makes me think of. We certainly seem to be OK with home-grown assholes.

Remember doctor-patient confidentiality? It means that unless you represent an imminent danger to yourself or others, what you discuss with your doctors and other health-care providers is between you and them. That way, people won’t suffer and die unnecessarily, contagious illnesses won’t go unchecked, and your doctor can give you the best treatment possible because he/she/ze knows whether or not you, for example, have taken any illicit drugs lately.

Unless you’re in Texas and you’re an undocumented immigrant, apparently, in which case going to your gynecologist and giving a fake ID will get you turned in. They kept her there for hours, people. Hours, so that the sheriff’s deputies could get their shit together and arrest her in a leisurely way. Now her husband, also undocumented, is no longer going to work for fear of deportation and the family, including an eight-year-old daughter, is scrambling for income, while Blanca Borrego faces deportation because she had a fake social security card in her purse, found after her arrest.

Well, that’s great. That’s fantastic. Terrific. It’s not like there’s any reason to want undocumented immigrants to be able to get health care safely. It’s not like they and their families will suffer and die if they avoid doctors for fear of deportation, or that, if their kids aren’t able, for example, to get vaccinations, infectious diseases could spread across any number of populations, maybe even including homegrown white assholes. It’s not like ob-gyn care is essential to a woman’s health.

Oh, wait, it’s exactly like all of those things are true.

And what about the clinic that did this? They can’t comment because, according this article, of patient confidentiality.


9 thoughts on Woman faced with deportation after going in for her gyn appointment

  1. If the various so-called religious freedom laws pass, non-Christians of all sexual choices will be the next to be denied health care. Protests will mean arrests for disorderly conduct.
    Women in small towns may find it prudent to purchase Xian T-shirts and wear them to clinics and pharmacies.
    T-rump scares hell out of me. Dalton, GA and environs have a large Latino population, largely undocumented. Deportations generally occur only after arrests for non-immigration-related reasons.

  2. A terrible thing, no doubt.
    Still, you’re going to defend having a fake ID and a fake SS card?

    Having an undocumented immigrant with these fake documents is the Republican wet dream.

    1. Every kid in my high school had a fake ID, and all a fake SS card will allow her to do is get work. I don’t consider having those things to be particularly horrid.

      The Republicans parted ways with reality long ago. They don’t need a real life example of anything to do what they way.

      1. Myself and several of my buddies all spent a night in jail when we had fake ids and were busted. I mean, she shouldn’t have been ratted out by her doctor, but she’s not anymore special than anyone else with a fake id. Get busted, go to jail. And then get a whole year of probation with an asshole who drug tests you every 5 minutes, in my case. I can’t muster too much sympathy for that, or for the fake ss, after my junkie brothers junkie girlfriend used mine for turning on her electricity, applying for a furniture finance and going to a dentist for her meth mouth. Guess who got stuck with the bad credit? Yup. Me. So while it sucks that the clinic threw patient privacy out the window, she committed crimes legal citizens get busted for. Hopefully, it wasn’t someone else’s ss number, because that shit ruins your credit even if you can prove it was identity theft.

      2. I have no idea why it never occurred to me that the fake ss card would be with somebody else’s real name and number–I’m just tired, I guess–but it never did! Of course you are right.

        But the point is the breach of confidentiality. If a grocery store cashier had called the sheriff, I wouldn’t have posted this. But you are supposed to be able to seek health care without worrying that your doctor’s going to drop a dime on you.

      3. How she got busted is bullshit. What she was busted for wasn’t. I guess that’s the best way to describe my opinion.

      4. How she got busted is bullshit. What she was busted for wasn’t. I guess that’s the best way to describe my opinion.

        Spot on. SS falsification and identity theft are a big fucking deal, especially for people who already have a tenuous relationship with the government (people on welfare, immigrants, workers on visas, ex-cons, etc). I have a former client who went back to jail on a parole violation they never committed after one of their relatives used their identity to buy equipment for making MDMA. Serious shit.

  3. The clinic will probably get sued. I hope they lose.

    If I were to guess about any defense that the clinic might have, I suspect that part of this is probably linked to health insurance. It is often tracked by SSN. You may note that the article says that the husband (also undocumented) was providing health insurance for the wife. If you start mixing up fake SSNs and insurance, then you can run into some issues. One obvious issue would be coverage. The clinic may not be covered by insurance if it provides services based on false documentation. If the clinic is at risk of nonpayment (or has already not been paid) that might explain things a bit.

Comments are currently closed.