‘There will be consequences for failing to follow the law’: Texas governor threatens children’s hospital with immigration fearmongering

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to defund a children’s hospital after a doctor posted a TikTok challenging Abbott’s executive order forcing healthcare professionals to collect data on patients’ citizenship status.

Abbott issued Executive Order No. GA-46 on November 1, directing hospitals in Texas to collect information “regarding patients who are not lawfully present in the United States.” The order directs them to record the number of inpatient discharges, emergency visits, and the cost of care to immigrants. While the order notes that the hospital cannot refuse patient care based on this information, many are still fearful of its impact on undocumented patients. These patients already tend to refrain from receiving medical care since most are uninsured and unable to cover the cost of medical care. Now, they’ll be further discouraged from seeking medical care due to Abbott’s order. The order also wrongfully tries to characterize undocumented immigrants as a financial “burden” on Texas’ healthcare system while ignoring the actual issues plaguing the industry, such as the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid coverage, which would give it access to billions in federal funds annually.

However, when one doctor attempted to speak out against the order, Abbott cruelly threatened to defund a children’s hospital.

Gov. Greg Abbott threatens to defund children’s hospital

In a now-deleted TikTok video, Tony Pastor, a doctor at Texas’s Children’s Hospital, urged Texas patients not to disclose their citizenship status at the hospital. Although the video was deleted, it has continued to circulate on TikTok from those who recorded it. In the video, Pastor explains Abbott’s new policy, noting that patients get an intake form in which they will be asked about their citizenship. He stated that the order “Has made all of us physicians and healthcare providers super uncomfortable,” especially since doctors are unsure what will be done with that information. Pastor stated, “I worry that this information is going to be used to deport people.”

However, he claimed something that people aren’t being told is that they don’t actually have to answer the intake question. As a result, he proposed that no one answer the question when they come to the hospital as a way to mess with the data.

Pastor is correct in saying that patients do not have to answer questions about their citizenship. Federal laws on patient privacy ensure that answering the question about citizenship is not legally required, so patients can leave the intake question blank. However, Abbott responded by issuing a public threat on X to defund the children’s hospital unless it has “crystal clear records.” He warned that “there will be consequences for failing to follow the law in the Executive Order.”

Following Abbott’s threats, the hospital released a statement to HuffPost indicating it was in “full compliance” with the executive order and that Pastor’s views don’t reflect the “official position of Texas Children’s Hospital.”

Abbott is stooping pretty low to verbally threaten to defund a children’s hospital because doctors want to protect patients’ privacy. It’s also very concerning that the governor is threatening hospitals over doctors simply informing patients of their rights. These patients aren’t legally required to answer the question of their citizenship, so what will Abbott do if they don’t? What are these consequences he’s talking about? Is he really going to punish doctors, hospitals, and children seeking medical care by shutting down the institutions where patients who know their rights don’t answer the question? It’s really not a good look for politicians to go around threatening children’s hospitals, or any hospitals for that matter, because they can’t handle a single civilian standing up to them.