Two North Texas doctors have sued University General Hospital Dallas after receiving a letter that announced their admitting privileges were revoked because they perform abortions at a separate facility.
Dr. Lamar Robinson and another doctor not wanting to be identified filed a lawsuit in a Dallas County courtroom after the public hospital, University General Hospital Dallas, sent a letter to the two physicians stating that they were revoking their admitting rights.
“The letters to the physicians stated that because they provide abortions they were no longer going to be given privileges at that hospital," said Center for Reproductive Rights General Counsel Esha Bhandari. "The hospital also characterized it as clinical disruptive behavior even though the physicians haven’t had to have any interactions with the hospital since getting privileges and the definitions of disruptive behavior in the hospital dialogue has to do with harassment of individuals and so forth.”
The physicians are suing under a State of Texas statute that prevents discrimination related to the practice of abortion.
"This statute exists to protect abortion providers from being denied or revoked privileges because they provide abortions," Bhandari said.
Bhandari said the attorney general’s office used the statute to argue their case in federal court when a lawsuit was filed against that portion of Texas’ 2013 abortion law. A state judge has temporarily reinstated the two doctor’s admitting privileges at University General Hospital Dallas and a trial has been set for April 30th.
Read the UGHD letter here:
University General Hospital Dallas Letter to abortion doctors
