17 States Challenge Abortion Privacy Rule and HIPAA Validity

What: Seventeen Republican-led states are trying to get rid of a rule that protects the privacy of people seeking abortion and other reproductive care. A federal judge in Texas is questioning the constitutionality of the entire HIPAA law, which safeguards private health information.

Key Line: “Ashley Emery, senior policy analyst at Partnership for Women and Families, said the lawsuits take aim at a deeply needed line of defense against abortion criminalization…’These challenges to HIPAA are designed to take protections away from patients and try to allow anti-abortion politicians to have more control, and I think that power deficit is really important to note, and it should be very chilling,’ she said.”

Source: Michigan Advance