Texas Sues to Block Biden Reproductive Rule Protecting Women’s Privacy

Now, the state of Texas has filed a lawsuit hoping to block the ban, saying it unnecessarily hinders the state’s ability to conduct lawful investigations.

“Many Americans are scared their private medical information will be being shared, misused, and disclosed without permission. This has a chilling effect on women visiting a doctor, picking up a prescription from a pharmacy, or taking other necessary actions to support their health,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, providers have shared concerns that when patients travel to their clinics for lawful care, their patients’ records will be sought, including when the patient goes home. Patients and providers are scared, and it impedes their ability to get and to provide accurate information and access safe and legal health care,” said OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer.

Biden said in a White House statement that “no one should have their medical records used against them, their doctor, or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care.”

If any information would have to be shared, the healthcare provider would also have to acquire a “signed attestation” that this information is not for prohibited purposes like identifying women getting abortions.

“HHS has promulgated the 2024 Privacy Rule 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,’” the lawsuit says.

“HHS nakedly admitted that the 2024 Privacy Rule is a response to the ‘[t]he Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs [that] overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, thereby enabling states to significantly restrict access to abortion,’” said the lawsuit.

“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,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The federal government is attempting to undermine Texas’s law enforcement capabilities, and I will not allow this to happen.”

“With this rule, the Biden Administration makes a backdoor attempt at weakening Texas’s laws by undermining state law enforcement investigations that implicate medical procedures. The Biden Administration’s motive is clear: to subvert lawful state investigations on issues that the Courts have said the States may investigate,” said the statement.

“The original HIPAA statute as written by the United States Congress explicitly preserves the investigative authority of State law enforcement, and the law in no way gives HHS the authority to allow HIPAA-regulated institutions to refuse to cooperate with State investigations,” the AG statement said.

“These rules significantly harm the State of Texas’s investigative abilities because covered entities frequently cite the 2000 Privacy Rule as a reason they cannot comply with a valid investigative subpoena for documents, and have already begun invoking the 2024 Privacy Rule for similar purposes,” said the state’s lawsuit.

Reuters notes that this judge has often “ruled against Biden’s policies.”