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You are here: Home / Healthcare / Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice

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Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice.

Republicans coined the name Obamacare in an attempt to destroy the legislation, but that didn’t work – as we can see from the news from David Anderson about North Carolina today – and forever more the name Obamacare will make clear just which side and which president brought us the Affordable Care Act.

But that’s not the poetic justice I am referring to.

Yep, these conservative assholes added amendments to their state constitutions to affirm broad rights for people to choose their health care.  (Translation: you’re not the boss of me and you can’t force Obamacare on us.)  And now it’s backfiring!

A decade ago, when conservatives were attacking President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act as government encroachment in health care, they worked to amend state constitutions around the country to affirm a broad right for people to control their own medical decisions.

Now, in 2023 with the benefit of hindsight – when they are removing the right of self-determination for women – legislating the right of  every fucking competent adult to make their own health care decisions doesn’t look like such a good idea!

hahahahaha!  Consequences, bitches!

“Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions,” reads section 38(a) of the Wyoming constitution’s Declaration of Rights, under the header “Right of healthcare access.” The provision was placed on Wyoming’s ballot by state lawmakers and approved by voters in 2012; voters saw ballot language that described the measure as preserving this right “from undue governmental infringement.”

Now these anti-ACA provisions—and their broad affirmations of a right to decide—have turned into an unlikely weapon in progressives’ fight against restrictions on abortion.

Reproductive rights advocates in Wyoming have sued to strike down the state’s abortion ban, saying that this “right to make . . . health care decisions” protects abortion access. A lawsuit in Ohio has made the same case using a similar provision in Ohio’s constitution that was adopted by voters in 2011.

“If you have an amendment that says you have the freedom to choose your health care, then that’s going to apply to all health care: that’s the argument being made,” says David Cohen, a professor of law at Drexel University who studies constitutions and abortion. “It’s like, ‘you used broad words, and these broad words have certain meanings, and we’re just applying those meanings to this context.’”

In both Ohio and Wyoming, these claims have seen early success in courts.

I hope this bites them in the ass in every state where they did something like this.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    horatius

    I guess the Tea Party was not entirely useless. Can’t wait for the day when the Republican Party completely loses all Big Business. ​

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Obviously, when conservatives say “each competent adult,” they aren’t thinking about women.

    ETA: “his or her” notwithstanding.

  5. 5.

    Geminid

    So I guess Wyoming Republicans will have to try amending their state Constitution again. I don’t know what the process is, but it could be a tough fight

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    Yep, these conservative assholes added amendments to their state constitutions to affirm broad rights for people to choose their health care. (Translation: you’re not the boss of me and you can’t force Obamacare on us.) And now it’s backfiring!

    Too bad!  So sad!  Hopefully their health insurance covers butthurt!

  7. 7.

    japa21

    IIRC, there is something called “The Law of Unintended Consequences”, also known as “be careful what you wish for” because it might turn around and bite you in the ass.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    OT – basketball returns at 6:30 Eastern.

    🎶 Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones
    Got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo🎶

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    So nice to see handsome Barack Obama, beautiful and happy Nancy Pelosi, and especially Harry Reid.   And the kid looking all spiffy and grown up in his white shirt and vest, with his hands in his pockets.

  15. 15.

    Chief Oshkosh

    I hope this bites them in the ass in every state where they did something like this.

    Bites them in the ass my ass. Since most of them are white male nitwits, I hope it bites their balls clean off.

  17. 17.

    PaulB

    @Geminid:  So I guess Wyoming Republicans will have to try amending their state Constitution again. I don’t know what the process is, but it could be a tough fight

    No, it’s simpler than that. They’ll simply (legislatively) define abortion as “not health care,” so no constitutional amendment will be required.

    Their reasoning on this is not impressing the judge in this case, but this will definitely be appealed. A higher court might be more sympathetic and decide that they can get away with this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

    (Edited for clarity.)

  18. 18.

    citizen dave

    From the Wikipedia: “Hoist with his own petard” is a phrase from a speech in William Shakespeare‘s play Hamlet that has become proverbial. The phrase’s meaning is that a bomb-maker is blown (“hoist”) off the ground by his own bomb (a “petard” is a small explosive device), and indicates an ironic reversal, or poetic justice.[1]

  19. 19.

    Baud

    The real irony is that Obamacare had no effect on anyone’s right to make their own health care decisions.

  20. 20.

    PaulB

    @Baud:

    Well, to be overly pedantic, that’s not entirely true. The ACA eliminated some really horrible “insurance” policies from the marketplace, the cheap ones that didn’t really cover anything.

    Remember all that brouhaha about how “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” was “the lie of the year?”

    (Edited to correct the Obama quote.)

  21. 21.

    smith

    @Baud: As I recall, one of their favorite scare tactics was to say that under Obamacare you wouldn’t be able to choose your doctor. Another was the imaginary terror of death panels, where a sinister committee would make decisions about withholding care. Lack of personal choice was sort of their theme song, and I suppose these amendments were a way to follow through to get extra political points without fundamentally changing anything.

  22. 22.

    stacib

    @Geminid: I read something earlier today that said they are now going to amend the amendment to say abortion is not healthcare.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @PaulB:

    It affected the insurance policies that were available to purchase.  The WY constitution doesn’t mention that.

  24. 24.

    Raoul Paste

    So if abortion is not healthcare, what is it?
    It’s not manufacturing or construction or bookkeeping, is it?

  27. 27.

    catclub

    @Geminid: ​
    They have massive supermajorities. I suspect they will just amend the constitution to say that abortion care is not included in those other rights to self determination. They already intend it.

     

    ETA. not exactly first with this idea.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @Geminid: From the report, it sounds like last time they had to put the amendment on the ballot. Republicans have generally been squirming to avoid that, since the Kansas vote went so firmly pro-choice.

    EDIT: I would guess they’d even have problems with an amendment saying abortion is not health care.

  31. 31.

    Gin & Tonic

    @smith:

    Another was the imaginary terror of death panels, where a sinister committee would make decisions about withholding care.

    A concern that could only be voiced by someone who has never had to deal with a health insurer on a complex issue.

  32. 32.

    Geo Wilcox

    @smith: Like that wasn’t already happening all the time back then? At least now you don’t get penalized for having a pre-existing condition.

  33. 33.

    smith

    @Geminid: Doe it require a referendum in WY? I think in several red states the Rs have been surprised when something like this has been posed in a referendum.

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic: inorite? I’m now dealing with (9 months later) an insurance company that knows better than my surgeon what is warranted for my post-surgical care.

  35. 35.

    Geminid

    @smith: I do not know Wyomings’s process, but it seems likely that a ballot measure is part of it. It is in Virginia at least

    Kansas’s ballot measure surprised everyone last June. That’s what makes me think Wyoming Republicans may have a tough fight.

  36. 36.

    PaulB

    https://ballotpedia.org/Wyoming_Constitution

    Wyoming does not feature a process for initiated constitutional amendments. Thus, amendments in Wyoming can be put on the ballot through referral by the legislature or by a constitutional convention.

    More specifically:

    Article 20 of the Wyoming Constitution defines the two ways it can be amended.

    Section 1 lays out the process of a legislatively referred constitutional amendment.

    Either branch of the Wyoming State Legislature can propose amendments.

    Regardless of where the amendment originated, two-thirds of all the members of each of the two houses, voting separately, have to agree to put it on the ballot for a vote of the state’s electors.

    Any proposed amendments that receive a two-thirds (66.67%) vote of both chambers are to go on the ballot at the next general election.

    The proposed amendment must be published for at least 12 consecutive weeks, prior to a vote being held on it “in at least one newspaper of general circulation.”

    To be enacted, the amendment must be approved by a majority of the electors.

    If more than one amendment is proposed, they are to be voted on separately.

  38. 38.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    The real irony is that Obamacare had no effect on anyone’s right to make their own health care decisions.

    It forced people to have employer health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, or (gasp!) buy ACA compliant plans or face a financial penalty.

  39. 39.

    Mallard Filmore

    @smith: 

    Another was the imaginary terror of death panels, where a sinister committee would make decisions about withholding care.

    Which is exactly the situation we have today, where GOP politicians make decisions about deadly pregnancies.

  40. 40.

    smith

    @PaulB: Sounds like it would need a statewide vote then, not something the lege could do by itself. Not only were the R’s surprised by Kansas and abortion, but I’m guessing they also didn’t expect MO voters to approve Medicaid expansion. I think statewide votes on things like this may be increasingly dicey for them, as you don’t have the distorting effects of gerrymandering as you do in legislative elections.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @smith:

    as you don’t have the distorting effects of gerrymandering hateful refusals to vote for Democrats as you do in legislative elections.

  43. 43.

    bbleh

    First They shoved Socialist Obamacare down our throats, and now They’re shoving Baby-Killing down our throats!  Also something something Drag Queens!

    When oh when will we have the Freedom™ to deny other people the choice to have what we don’t want for ourselves?

  44. 44.

    smith

    @Baud: True — it forces them to focus on the question at hand, rather than party labels and tribal affiliations.

  47. 47.

    Dangerman

    There’s an easy reason for the clusterfuck; never in their wildest imaginations did they ever think that there would be enough assholes on the court to overturn Roe. Complete failure of all their crystal balls.

  50. 50.

    citizen dave

    @Gin & Tonic: Dang, I see it now at #2.  Honestly I wasn’t meaning to correct anyone–and the wiki article goes on to discuss modern variations.  It was just the thing that occurred to me (as I learned it from a Tom Waits song or stage banter–can’t recall which), so I looked it up.

  51. 51.

    Tony G

    Ha Ha.  There’s a significant advantage to having fascist enemies who are complete idiots.

  52. 52.

    NobodySpecial

    I remember when a lot of people used to tut tut at the idea of someone on the left calling it Obamacare, because they were worried about the optics of it, as opposed to the more neutral ACA.

    I always thought that was dumb, because tying a popular President (and by extension, the President’s party) to popular legislation is a good thing. Glad to see those objections have faded.

  53. 53.

    sab

    I am not holding my breath on Ohio followimg suit, what with the Right To Life whackjobs we just voted onto Ohio Supreme in the last election.

  54. 54.

    C Stars

    It does kind of highlight a larger trend away from freedom on the part of the GOP. Not so long ago they were yelping about free speech–now they’re outright banning books.

  55. 55.

    sab

    @HumboldtBlue: Why on earth is he living with his family in Adams County? I know they should be allowed to live anywhere, and Adams County is on the Ohio River and hilly and beautiful, but it is as rural white as anywhere in Ohio. And he has no ties to it. Counties like that don’t even accept unknown white people who move in

    ETA I suppose beautiful farms there are very affordable and Cincinnati is not that far away.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @C Stars:

    It wasn’t that long ago that a bunch of wanker intellectuals were claiming that the GOP was better on free speech because they hated campaign finance laws.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @sab:

    Maybe he went to live with his uncle because he got in a fight with a couple of guys who were up to no good in his West Philadelphia neighborhood.

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    I remember what Obama himself once said about the Republicans’ coinage “Obamacare”. He said, “Damn right, I care!”

  71. 71.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I bet constitutional law professor Barack Obama had a big laugh seeing this. Wondering when time machine Obama will appear in the fevered conspiracy theories of right wing whackjobs who will say he intended to do this.

  72. 72.

    Paul in KY

    @PaulB: I hope they can’t do that. I don’t see how you can legally (via a legislative body) determine what is or is not healthcare. Could they theoretically say any procedure to do with one’s heart is not healthcare?

    God help us all if they have that power.

Comments are closed.