The Department of Health and Human Services has proposed rules that would bar doctors, hospitals and health insurance plans from disclosing to criminal investigators that women have had legal abortions, a move aimed at thwarting efforts by the GOP state legislature to limit out-of-state access. abortion.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra are set to unveil the proposed rule at a meeting of an administration task force dedicated to protecting abortion rights on Wednesday afternoon.
The proposal, which comes from HHS’s civil rights office, would strengthen existing protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA. The rule would block efforts to obtain information about legal reproductive health care, including abortion, to investigate, sue or prosecute individuals.
The idea comes as GOP state legislators draft measures to bar citizens from traveling abroad to seek abortions. Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed legislation earlier this month making it a crime to help minors receive abortions outside the state without parental consent.
The HHS rule, in theory, would make investigations into these abortions more difficult.
“Protecting individual health information has taken on critical importance after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” an administration official told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday previewing the announcement. The HHS office for civil rights “has heard from patients and providers, major medical organizations and others who represent patients nationwide. They are scared. They are worried about medical information being misused and disclosed.
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The announcement also continues Harris’ role as a key ambassador on abortion rights for the administration. (President Joe Biden is traveling in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland this week.)
The proposal comes just days after a federal judge in Texas ruled the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a widely used abortion drug, illegal. The Justice Department immediately appealed the decision, which was widely criticized by Democrats and in silence by the GOP.
A separate and conflicting ruling by a federal judge in Washington state requiring the FDA to keep the drug on the market in more than a dozen states could have pushed the issue to the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
Some Democrats pressed the Biden administration to ignore the judge’s ruling, but the White House and HHS said ignoring the court’s order would set a dangerous precedent. Harris and Becerra will likely finalize the order at Wednesday’s meeting.
“If Friday’s initial order stands, it will endanger women’s health and undermine the FDA’s ability to make safe and effective medicines available to people who need them,” an administration official said. “This poses an existential threat to the FDA.”
The Department of Education also sent guidance to more than 20,000 school officials warning them to protect student privacy, including health records. The Federal Communications Commission also released guidance on how consumers can protect health information stored on their cell phones.