I feel like this should be bigger news.
Still a crook any way you look
Texas sued the Biden administration in an effort to block a new rule that seeks to protect the privacy of women living in states that ban abortion who travel out of state for the procedure.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, opens new tab in Lubbock, Texas, the state is asking a federal judge to strike down the rule, which prohibits healthcare providers and insurers from giving state law enforcement authorities information about reproductive healthcare that is legal where it was provided.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said in announcing the rule in April that 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.”
The measure came in response to efforts by authorities in some Republican-led states that ban abortion, including Texas, to restrict out-of-state travel for abortion. So far, no criminal prosecutions or civil judgments have resulted from those efforts.
Providers and insurers must fully comply with the new rule by December.
Texas is also asking the court to block a separate rule issued in 2000, which said healthcare providers and insurers can only hand over information if it is relevant to a legitimate law enforcement inquiry and is limited in scope.
Texas said in its lawsuit that providers frequently cite the 2000 rule as a reason for not responding to subpoenas from state investigators, and have begun invoking the new rule as well.
Both rules were issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the federal law on patient privacy. Texas claims that HHS went beyond its authority under HIPAA in passing both rules, because the law preserves states’ authority to conduct investigations.
“This new rule actively undermines Congress’s clear statutory meaning when HIPAA was passed, and it reflects the Biden administration’s disrespect for the law,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
Not much out there on this so far, for reasons I don’t quite understand. I’d like to see some lawyers and HIPAA experts weigh in on this, because we all know how this sort of thing goes. We all know this is an abortion travel ban by another route, and that’s an issue that’s going to come before SCOTUS one way or another. It sure seems like this would also allow Texas and other revanchist states to harass providers of gender affirming care elsewhere in the country. Who knows what other doors could be opened to Paxton’s prying eyes.
Now of course many blue states have passed laws protecting exactly this kind of information from predators like Kan Paxton. Perhaps that would remain as an effective barrier, but only as long as there’s a Democrat in the White House. It would be nice to be able to pass a federal law re-asserting abortion rights, but that depends on more than just having the right President. Aren’t we all glad that Sam Alito settled the abortion question once and for all in 2022? The HIPAA Journal, the Associated Press, The Barbed Wire, and Jezebel have more.