Marlene Barbera is an Oregon resident who is fighting breast cancer. Until recently, she was a patient at the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic in Portland and was scheduled for a mastectomy. She will now be forced to seek treatment elsewhere—if that is even an option for her.
In the health care system, doctors can “fire” an uncooperative patient for things such as a lengthy pattern of non-compliance with their treatments or because they repeatedly fail to pay their bills. It has to be a longstanding situation and it has to be willful. Patients cannot be fired simply because they happen to be forgetful or sloppy about their finances. It does not happen often, but it is an option in extreme circumstances. That being said, political views are not a reason for releasing a patient from care. But that is what happened to Barbera.
According to an article in Reduxx, Barbera noticed a trans pride flag in the reception room of the clinic. She is what is known as “gender critical.” This means she rejects the notions of gender identity. She contacted her doctor via the medical app MyChart, stating:
I have been threatened on Twitter by trans activists with rape and death — so it is daunting to go for medical treatment with that banner proclaiming that what I am, an adult human female, is a mere opt-in category for any gender non-conforming male and not a reality. May I please have a telephone appointment to discuss how I may access your medical care without walking under a banner that seeks to negate all I am?
Barbera was under the impression that the message would be a private one between her and her doctor. However, the clinic staff saw her comments. The doctor, who had been her primary care provider for 12 years and had also treated members of her family, refused to remove the flag.
Barbera subsequently tried to leave a message for the doctor about a blood test and talked with someone in the office:
The person insisted I make an appointment. I have breast cancer and consequently an abundance of medical appointments so I did not want to do that. They got frustrated with my ‘non-compliance’ and hung up on me. Thinking it might have been in error, I called back. I was told I was “not allowed” and that I must speak to the previous person who had hung up on me. I declined as things hadn’t gone well the first time…I asked, guessing “did I hurt the trans person’s feelings?” And the receptionist took offense to the question, asking “what did you say” slowly and with great emphasis.
Not long after, Barbera received a MyChart message from Oregon Health Science University Practice Manager Stein Berger. She was informed that Richmond is an “all-inclusive clinic and we value and advocate for diversity.” She was also told that her “transphobic” remarks were “harmful” to the staff. Later that day, she got an email from the clinic stating in part:
Effective immediately, you are discharged from receiving medical care at the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic. This action is being taken because of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff … Please note that you are also now dismissed from all OHSU Family Medicine clinics, including Immediate Care clinics.
Her access to services ended on July 29. She told Reduxx that she has nowhere else to go. But she also said:
Gender ideology is a religion. I do not subscribe to that religion. I would not force anyone to pray the rosary with me. The trans movement says a man is allowed to define being a woman by way of his feelings but that a woman is not allowed to define being a woman by way of her material reality. So really, it is a men’s rights movement. Dangerous to women and children.
The most chilling facet of this situation is that the clinic is more than willing to hand Barbera a potential death sentence over a difference of opinion. The second-most chilling facet is that this situation was not created as a result of a law, policy, or practice of a federal, state, or municipal agency. This was done at the discretion of the Oregon Health Science University, which did not like Barbera’s views on gender.
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There will be those on the Left and in the trans movement who will say that this is nothing more than rough justice and karma for Creative LLC et al. v. Elenis et al. Those people would do well to remember that we are not talking about wedding cakes or websites. There is no end of companies and people who would be more than happy to fill those requests. We are talking about human life and a physician’s duty to preserve it. Furthermore, if somehow the positions were reversed, OHSU and the Richmond Clinic would feel the full force and wrath of every applicable government agency and available activist.
Hopefully, these thoughts will not be lost on you, dear reader. They will be lost on the trans movement and its allies, who are concerned solely with themselves and for whom no one else exists. They claim to be perpetual victims and to embrace love. But they are willing to risk letting someone die. In the pursuit of their chosen genders, they have lost their humanity—in more ways than one.
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