Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 17
US President Joe Biden’s administration issued a final rule on Monday aimed at strengthening privacy protections for women seeking abortions that bans the disclosure of protected health information related to reproductive health.
The new rule issued through the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services, strengthens existing provisions under the Health Insurance Portability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy rule.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, about 92,100 women crossed state lines for an abortion in the first half of 2023 – more than double the number during a similar period in 2020.
Some states, like Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho, have sought to stop that by making it a crime to help, or pay for, such travel. Lawsuits over such measures are pending in Alabama and Idaho.
Biden said no one should have their medical records “used against them, their doctor, or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said at a news conference announcing the rule that “each and every American still has a right to their privacy, especially when it comes to their very private, very personal health information.”
Similar past actions by the department have been taken to court by anti-abortion groups and it is likely this rule will also be litigated. Becerra did not respond to a question about how his department was preparing for that.
Source: Reuters
