A federal judge recently blocked new regulatory changes by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that illegally restrict doctors from protecting their patients and reporting abuse related to the harms of abortion and mutilating gender procedures. The changes amend a privacy rule under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to silence health care professionals from reporting suspected abuse as a way to hinder enforcement of any state laws that ban abortion or experimental drugs and medical mutilation for children.
A Texas physician, who owns her own private clinic, challenged the changes because she believes that elective abortions harm both the mother and unborn child, and that irreversible gender interventions also harm children. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk sided with the Texas doctor and issued a narrow preliminary injunction against the HHS, which only exempts the physician’s clinic from the new rule while litigation continues.
In April 2024, the HHS published the amended HIPAA privacy rule which specifically excluded unborn children from the definition of “persons.” The HHS also deceptively redefined “public health” to exclude any state authority to deem some aspects of “reproductive health” as detrimental in any way, such as abortion or gender interventions. While HIPAA was enacted to protect against unauthorized disclosure of a patient’s health information, it had explicitly preserved a state’s authority to require the reporting of injury or child abuse. However, these changes, which became effective in June 2024, now prevent doctors from disclosing information to state officials or law enforcement regarding any harm or abuse stemming from abortion or gender procedures.
According to the lawsuit, the HHS has admitted that the amended privacy rule, called the “2024 Rule,” is a direct response the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey and empowered states to restrict abortion.
The lawsuit reads, “In other words, HHS promulgated the 2024 Rule in order to obstruct States’ ability to enforce their laws regulating abortion and other laws that HHS deems to fall under the rubric of ‘reproductive health care.’” […]
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