Seventeen states want to end an abortion privacy rule. A federal judge is questioning HIPAA itself

[Omaha Steve]

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/04/01/repub/seventeen-states-want-to-end-an-abortion-privacy-rule-a-federal-judge-is-questioning-hipaa-itself/

By: Kelcie Moseley-Morris - April 1, 2025 5:00 am

The decades-old federal law protecting the privacy of individual health information is threatened by multiple lawsuits that seek to throw out a rule restricting disclosure of information in criminal investigations, including for those seeking legal abortion and other reproductive health care.

In one of the cases, the Texas federal judge who has been at the center of several anti-abortion court battles appears to question the constitutionality and legality of the health privacy act in its entirety.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — or HIPAA — established in 1996 to protect the privacy and security of patient health information, includes some exceptions under limited conditions, such as law enforcement investigations. But after the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion rights in 2022 and more than a dozen states passed abortion bans, advocates worried that such records could be used by state officials and law enforcement to investigate and prosecute patients seeking an abortion and those who help them.

Health officials under former President Joe Biden’s administration enacted a HIPAA rule to keep health information private when the patient was in a state with legal access and the care was obtained legally. In order to release information related to this type of care, the entity subject to HIPAA rules must sign a document stating it is not released for one of the prohibited purposes.

FULL story at link above.

[Ocelot II]

1. This is why Chuck Grasshole's bill limiting the decisions of the federal district courts

to cases in their districts won't go anywhere. The GOP wants all these fascist abortion cases to be brought before Kasmarcyk in that district in TX because his decisions apply nationally - just like the latest decisions against Trump that inspired Grasshole's bill. It's very much a two-edged sword he's dealing with, and if his bill were to pass (which isn't likely), Kasmarcyk would be out of the game.