Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently filed a lawsuit at the Federal District Court in Lubbock against a Biden administration rule that would hide information regarding abortion or other “reproductive health” from criminal investigations — a law which disingenuously purports to protect women, but instead could end up harming them.
The Biden Administration’s proposed rule greatly limits the circumstances under which personal health information (PHI) can be shared when it comes to “reproductive health care,” or abortion. While the original 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) still allowed states access to some information – for example, where it relates to public health like diseases, child abuse, births, deaths, injury, etc. – the new rule would greatly inhibit or block their investigative ability to look at this information if it has anything to do with “reproductive health care.”
Attorney General Paxton said in a statement: “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. The federal government is attempting to undermine Texas’s law enforcement capabilities, and I will not allow this to happen.”
According to the filing, the Texas AG is asserting that the 2024 rule was enacted “in order to obstruct States’ ability to enforce their own laws on abortion and other laws that HHS deems to fall under the rubric of ‘reproductive health care,’” and points out that the rule itself explicitly states that it exists as a response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
READ: New Biden HHS rule would ban sharing of abortion-related information with law enforcement
Under the Biden administration rule, information that is in any way related to reproductive health care would be difficult to obtain, or just simply blocked. This would prevent states like Texas with pro-life laws from knowing about abortions, potentially preventing the state from prosecuting illegal abortions, medical malpractice, abortion or other kinds of criminal activity, effectively shielding dangerous abortionists.
Supporters of the rule have painted the issue as a way of protecting women’s privacy. “The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to protecting reproductive health privacy and ensuring that no woman’s medical records are used against her, her doctor, or her loved one simply because she got the lawful reproductive care she needed,” the agency said according to CBS.
However the concern for shielding women from prosecution lacks merit, as Texas’ heartbeat law sec. 171.206 (b) (1) explicitly prohibits targeting a woman on whom an abortion was performed or induced.
In a June 2023 letter to Secretary Becerra signed by pro-life Attorneys General of several states, they called a precursor to the current rule “a solution in search of a problem” and called out the false narrative that states are seeking to punish women who seek abortions. Moreover, they point out the potential for future injury that hiding such information would cause, saying that if, for example, someone were to commit an illegal abortion on a woman that injures her, it would be difficult to prosecute the doctor. They also point out that the overly-broad use of the term “reproductive health” could make it difficult to investigate child abuse claims as well.
According to other media outlets, the HHS has said it does not comment on pending litigation, but also said that the rule “stands on its own.” If the court does not block it, the HHS rule is set to go into effect in December.
