As some states look to crack down on out-of-state abortions, the Biden administration has changed HIPAA to keep these states from accessing women’s medical records.

From The Epoch Times. The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has modified a patient privacy law to prevent abortion records from being accessed for investigations.

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The HHS, working with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), enacted what it called the “HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy” for protected health information (PHI).

“Many Americans are scared their private medical information will be being shared, misused, and disclosed without permission,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a press release. “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.”

Whether a person can get an abortion in their own state or travel to where it is legal, the Biden administration is working to strengthen laws protecting abortion access, he said. …

The rule prevents the health care provider and the patient’s PHI from being disclosed in any kind of investigation. …

In April 2023, the Biden administration said it planned to revise HIPAA so that patients are protected from “criminal, civil, or administrative investigations into or proceeding against any person in connection with seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care, where such health care is lawful under the circumstances in which it is provided.”

Abortion Travel Bans

Although no travel bans on abortions have been enacted yet, the Associated Press reported that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall implied in a lawsuit that just as abortion is a criminal offense in the state, “a criminal conspiracy formed in the State to have that same act performed outside the State is illegal.”

However, a 2023 Columbia Law Review report stated that in general, “states cannot use ordinary criminal laws to prosecute people for crimes committed outside of their borders.” …

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(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: LSOphoto/Getty Images Signature via Canva Pro)