Mary Anne Pazanowski reports:
Federal privacy rules limiting when health-care providers can share abortion-related information with state officials and law enforcement should be vacated and set aside, Texas told a federal court.
The provisions are contrary to the underlying statute, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which expressly recognizes state investigative authority, Texas said in a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The US Department of Health and Human Services thus had no power to adopt either a 2001 measure that limits disclosures, or a provision that explicitly sets out privacy rights in reproductive health care, which took effect June 25.
An HHS spokesperson said in an email that the agency “does not comment on pending litigation matters, but this rule stands on its own—women should be able to access legal reproductive health care without their medical records being used to track them or their doctors for liability.”
Read more at Bloomberg Law. The case is Texas v. U.S. Dep’t of Health & Human Servs., N.D. Tex., No. 24-cv-204, complaint filed 9/4/24.