Democrats propose legislation for new protections for abortion information
Abigail Adcox
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Two California Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday that would restrict health providers from disclosing personal health information related to an abortion without the patient’s permission, strengthening privacy protections for reproductive health information guaranteed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the Secure Access for Essential Reproductive Health Act, which would require HIPAA-covered entities to obtain a patient’s consent before providing information related to the termination of a pregnancy for federal, state, or tribal proceedings. The legislation is unlikely to receive a vote in the Republican-led House but is intended to convey Democratic efforts to safeguard access to abortion rights following last year’s Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
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“In our new post-Roe reality, Republican state Attorneys General and other right-wing groups could weaponize existing HIPAA loopholes and target reproductive health information to prosecute extreme abortion bans,” said Jacobs. “The SAFER Health Act will strengthen and expand HIPAA to protect patients and ensure doctors can’t share their personal health information related to abortion or pregnancy loss without consent.”
The legislation would also direct the Health and Human Services Department to revise HIPAA and health information technology regulations to enforce the measures and conduct a national education campaign to inform HIPAA-covered entities and their associates about the suggested revisions.
Currently, abortion clinics, health providers, and other HIPAA-covered entities must release medical records for patients, including those related to abortion, when there’s a warrant, court order, or subpoena. Abortion rights advocates have expressed concerns that patients and health providers could be vulnerable to prosecution for abortions under HIPAA.
“HIPAA provides much-needed privacy and security for medical records. In the changing reproductive rights landscape, however, it provides limited protection for people seeking abortion care, even if they travel to states that allow these services,” said Carmel Shachar, executive director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. “This bill proposes to give patients better control over their reproductive information.”
Several state abortion laws stipulate that providers could be punished for providing procedures past the legal limits through the loss of their medical license, fines, and/or jail time. No state laws currently punish pregnant women, though proposed legislation in Oklahoma seeks to amend the state’s abortion law to remove a provision that says a woman cannot be charged or prosecuted “with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child.”
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Democrats have introduced a slew of bills in the fallout of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade to protect access to abortions but have been unsuccessful in advancing them. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats marked the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which passed over the weekend, by arguing they will be a “firewall” to any Republican legislation that restricts access to “reproductive rights.”
The Republican-led House approved two abortion-related bills among the first pieces of legislation to receive a vote this year, including one that would require healthcare practitioners to provide medical treatment and lifesaving measures for infants born alive after a failed abortion.