FIRST, Republican state AGs demand out-of-state private medical records to hunt their residents down. NOW, over 50 cities in Texas have made it illegal to use public roads to help someone exit the state to get an abortion. And that’s just the beginning, folks!
On July 19, we published a post warning that HIPAA was not as protective as we thought against the actions of force-birther state attorneys general hunting medical records of those suspected of accessing abortion health care in another state. Now, piling on, over 50 counties in Texas are using their S.B.8 abortion ban’s threat of private civil suits to eliminate travel outside their state for needed care. And other GOP states are looking to copy their model. Just in – Alabama, which has banned almost all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, is now prepared to prosecute those who help a woman travel to another state to obtain a legal abortion for criminal conspiracy.
The right to travel freely in America is a right guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution, with the obvious and odious exception of the 1793 and 1850 Fugitive Slave Acts, which also utilized lawsuits as enforcement. No wonder the GOP wants to destroy the teaching of accurate American history! We have data privacy, “right-to-travel” and abortion rights bills to call your legislators about, and a letter to Joe, but the biggest win will be from kicking every GOP legislator out of their offices!
Action #1 – Call your legislators!
(Bills described in “Deeper Dive” below. Updates in red!
Minimal email/call script for representatives: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep. [___] to know that I am alarmed that attorneys general are hunting down people seeking legal reproductive and gender-affirming care through medical records and other forms of data and are now attempting to stop free travel through the country. Are you ready to write down a list?
- I would like to thank [him/her] for cosponsoring
- H.R.3420 – My Body, My Data Act of 2023. (Cosponsored by Brownley and Carbajal)
- H.R. 782 – Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act (Cosponsored by Brownley and Carbajal)
- H. R. 12 – The Women’s Health Protection Act – restoring the national right to abortion (Cosponsored by Brownley and Carbajal)
- Also I want [him/her] to cosponsor:
- H.R.459 – SAFER Health Act of 2023. I’d like it to be amended to cover gender-affirming care as well. (NOT cosponsored by Brownley and Carbajal)
- H.R. 4303 – Abortion Justice Act (NOT cosponsored by Brownley and Carbajal)
- H.R.4639 – Fourth Amendment is not for Sale (NOT cosponsored by Brownley and Carbajal)
Contacts
Minimal email/callscript for senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to know that I am alarmed that 19 state attorneys general are hunting down people seeking legal reproductive and gender-affirming care through medical records and other forms of data.
- I would like the senator to cosponsor:
- S.631 – UPHOLD Privacy Act of 2023. (No CA cosponsors yet)
- S.1656 – My Body, My Data Act of 2023 (No CA cosponsors yet)
- S.2576 – Fourth Amendment is not for Sale (No CA cosponsors yet)
- I thank [him/her] for cosponsoring
- S.2053 – Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act (Cosponsored by Feinstein and Padilla)
- S.701 – Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023(Cosponsored by Feinstein and Padilla)
- I also want to [thank Sen. Feinstein for cosponsoring/ask Sen. Padilla to cosponsor]
- S.323 – SAFER Health Act of 2023 but I’d like it to be amended to cover gender-affirming care as well. (Feinstein cosponsored)
Contacts
Action #2 – Write to Joe to add a rule to extend protection for transgender care and to consult with the DOJ and the Dept. of Transportation on dealing with unconstitutional bars to travel!
Contact: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Dear Joe,
Thank you and HHS Sec. Becerra for creating proposed rule “HIPAA Privacy Rule To Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy.” The protest letter by 19 state A.G.s declaring their right to seize residents’ private medical records, at home and in other states, demonstrates what we’re facing.
The letter tried to downplay the escalating threats to women, but bills introduced in AR, TX, KY and SC wanted to charge women with homicide, which is punishable by the death penalty in those states. OK, SC and TX, are also targeting medication abortion.
But women aren’t the only ones needing safe harbor. Mississippi‘s A.G. wants medical information on both out-of-state abortions and gender-affirming care. TN’s A.G. forced Vanderbilt University Medical Center to hand over complete medical records of transgender patients without their knowledge or consent, along with records on clinic volunteers, those seeking LGBT health care on the clinic website, and referrals to the clinic, even if they never got care there, back to 2018!
Please add a rule protecting this vulnerable group of AMERICANS as well, while fixing a hole in your first rule. It only requires an “attestation” that the health information won’t be shared for a prohibited purpose, but doesn’t protect it from a subpoena, discovery request, or other administrative request. Require law enforcement agencies to have a warrant before any health care providers turn over records and extend this protection to all illnesses, diseases, or medical issues.
Please also work with the DOJ and the Department of Transportation to meaningfully stop the threats on a person’s right to travel for any kind of health care, which is happening in Texas and Idaho right now. This is an unconstitutional throwback to the Fugitive Slave Law, where a person’s body is no longer considered their own and they are not protected as a full citizen.
Please take strong action NOW to protect us!
Deeper Dive!
The “War on Women” starts here.
Here are the bills referenced in the call scripts above.
- H. R. 12 – The Women’s Health Protection Act – restoring the national right to abortion
- S.631 – UPHOLD Privacy Act prevents the use of private health and location data from being used against them, including to identify people seeking reproductive health care services.
- H.R.459/S.323 – SAFER Health Act of 2023 prohibits health care providers and insurance plans from disclosing in a legal proceeding an individual’s personal health information related to an abortion or pregnancy without the individual’s valid authorization. (Current rep. cosponsors/Sen. cosponsors) This bill has not progressed. Make some noise here!
- S.2053 – Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act which would ensure women can freely travel for health care after Republican state legislatures have banned, and threatened to ban, women’s fundamental right to travel out of state to receive health care, including abortion care. (Current cosponsors)
- H.R. 4303 – Abortion Justice Act – (Summary) Codifying Roe would restore the legal right to abortion, but that isn’t enough on its own. There have always been systemic barriers in place that prevented people from getting the care they need. This bill
- Ensures equitable coverage for abortion care by requiring that any person who receives insurance or care through the government has coverage for abortion services and requiring abortion coverage in private insurance plans.
- Increases access by requiring all federally funded facilities to provide or refer for abortion care when it is consistent with their scope and abilities.
- It would also require all public university health centers to offer medication abortion to all students.
- Advances major investments in abortion care and related services for community organizations, providers, and others, to support care delivery and accessibility including funding.
- Increases the number of medical professionals who can provide abortion care by bolstering residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology to provide abortion training.
These bills were recommended by the Congressional Research Service – Abortion, Data Privacy, and Law Enforcement Access: A Legal Overview
- H.R.3420/S.1656 – My Body, My Data Act of 2023 – protects the privacy of personal reproductive or sexual health information, and for other purposes. (Current rep. cosponsors/sen. cosponsors) Reps. Brownley and Carbajal are already on-board. Sens. Feinstein and Padilla are not.
- H.R.4639/ S.2576 – Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act – Prevents law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining subscriber or customer records in exchange for anything of value, to address communications and records in the possession of intermediary internet service providers. (Current rep. cosponsors/Sen. cosponsors) None of our legislators, Reps. Brownley and Sens. Feinstein and Padilla are cosponsors yet.
19 state attorneys general were infuriated by a proposed rule by the Department of Health and Human Services to tighten access to Protected Health Information (PHI), both in their own states and across state borders. They will undoubtedly sue if it remains as written.
Now, 51 cities in Texas were have made it illegal to use public roads to help someone exit the state to get an abortion. It sounds foolish and unenforceable, but could be applied after the fact, if medical records were obtained by officials. Remember that in Texas, uninvolved persons can sue if an abortion takes place and claim $10,000 in damages. In such a proceeding there could be a request for (out of state) records. Truly this is a police state and a situation very much akin to slavery in pre-civil war America. This is what happens when we allocate human rights to the states. Rights are lost.
HIPAA doesn’t mean what you think it means…
“People think HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) protects a lot more health information than it actually does.”…The federal privacy rule contains exceptions that could allow prosecutors to compel businesses to relinquish information relevant to a criminal investigation — and the same is true for other kinds of legal action, too. In other words, in a state that has outlawed abortion, HIPAA wouldn’t necessarily keep records of the procedure from being used as evidence.”
Why the Dept. of Health and Human Services stepped in…
“Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti wants the state to be able to investigate and compel information on out-of-state abortions, according to a letter he co-signed with 18 other Republican attorneys general in response to a White House-backed federal rules change that would further shield reproductive health medical records.“
People like this guy are why Xavier Becerra, our former CA Attorney General and current Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services presciently published a proposed rule to strengthen privacy rules for reproductive health care – called “HIPAA Privacy Rule To Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy”. It would ban healthcare workers and insurance companies from “sharing health information that would be “used to identify, investigate, sue, or prosecute someone for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care.” HHS spells out that reproductive healthcare includes, but isn’t limited to, prenatal care, abortion, miscarriage management, infertility treatment, and contraception use. Per a fact sheet, the proposed rule would cover people forced to travel to other states for abortions.“
Here’s an example from Yale Law Journal on why this new rule is important.
“In advance of the anticipated fall of Roe v. Wade, some state legislatures began to bar in-state medical providers from directly handing over abortion records for use in out-of-state lawsuits or prosecutions in an effort to protect abortion seekers and providers. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,more states are joining the fray. But these laws fail to recognize two important things. First, medical records are increasingly “interoperable,” which means they are stored in forms that make it logistically easy to exchange them across different technological systems and providers. Second, newly on the books are important federal regulations that aim to improve and promote the seamless flow of medical records. Because of these two changes, patient records are now widely shared across state lines in the ordinary course of business—and nothing will protect those records from use by antiabortion actors once they are in the hands of out-of-state providers. The result is a loophole that risks swallowing the protection that these new state laws attempt to offer.
For example, say a patient from Louisiana travels to a Connecticut medical practice for abortion services. Under current state law, if the Connecticut practice shares records of the patient’s abortion at their facility with a doctor in the patient’s home state—even if the patient objects to such sharing or the Connecticut practice knows that those abortion records would likely be used to prosecute the patient in Louisiana—that would not violate any privacy law. On the other hand, a doctor who withheld such abortion records would likely risk violating the law. Accordingly, lawmakers must act now to address this “interoperability trap.” Independent of such legislative efforts, clinics and providers who care about patient privacy and autonomy would be well advised to adopt internal policies that go well beyond what is legally required to help protect their patients’ abortion records from disclosure.”
Becerra’s rule is not just to protect those providers fearful of facing subpoenas or aggressive attorneys general. It’s a warning to the healthcare workers who are complicit in exposing patients. Some even reported their patients to law enforcement while Roe was still on the books. An August 2022 report from If/When/How found that, in 61 cases where adults were investigated for pregnancy outcomes, 45 percent were reported to law enforcement by care professionals, including doctors, nurses, and social workers.
Becerra had ample warning about the tendencies of Republican state AGs. In 2013, ardent forced-birther and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline lost his law license in 2013, after he leaked abortion records of young women on Bill O’Reilly’s show. He’d earlier tried to force state health workers to report any sexual activity of girls younger than 16.
With the loss of Roe, however, the current GOP wants to try again.
The criminalization of Abortion – the doctor/provider version.
In the AG’s letter, we find this ridiculous statement.
This only false part of this statement is the “OR”. They are seeking to criminalize pregnant women AND medical personnel.
Their letter chastised the HHS rule for accurately acknowledging that abortion restriction “almost always target [] providers rather that patients” States have already passed legislation promising “lengthy prison sentences for providers, suspending physicians’ medical licenses, and sizable fines on people who perform abortions.”
So…what could go wrong by criminalizing medical staff?
The law of unintended but totally foreseeable consequences means that physicians in these states are retiring or leaving “due, at least largely, to the impact abortion bans have had on their ability to practice medicine and provide the best care possible for patients.” However, thanks in part to the GOP’s dystopian efforts, half of US counties have no ob-gyn, and post-Row laws prevent new doctors from getting required training, all while foreced-births start increasing.
“Almost 45 percent of the 286 accredited ob-gyn programs in the US now operate under revived or new abortion bans, meaning that more than 2,000 residents per year—trainee doctors who have committed to the specialty—may not receive the required training to be licensed. Among students and residents, simmering anger over bans is growing. Long-time faculty fear the result will be a permanent reshaping of American medicine, driving new doctors from red states to escape limitations and legal threats, or to protect their own reproductive options. That would reduce the number of physicians available, not just to provide abortions, but to conduct genetic screenings, care for miscarriages, deliver babies, and handle unpredictable pregnancy risks.
“I worry that we’re going to see an increase in maternal morbidity, differentially, depending on where you live,” says Kate Shaw, a physician and associate chair of ob-gyn education at Stanford Medicine. “And that’s just going to further enhance disparities that already exist.”
The criminalization of Abortion – the patient version.
From the AG letter…
This fiction rested on the conviction that women were to infantile and emotional to have rationally decided on an abortion. However, as women are traveling to out-of-state providers, juggling jobs and child care, and paying for lodging, it’s harder for legislators to maintain the myth that women just accidentally fell into the clutches of abortion providers.
Even in liberal California, women are criminalized for “suspicious” stillbirths and miscarriages. Chelsea Becker was prosecuted for murder after her stillbirth and spent 16 months in jail: ‘Why did the hospital call police?’
The 1973 Roe decision established the constitutional right to abortion. But NAPW has tracked more than 1,700 cases between 1973 and 2020 in which pregnant people have been criminalized often based on the notion of “fetal personhood” – that a fetus is, in effect, a person with rights. That estimate, probably an undercount, includes a wide range of cases in which pregnant people faced arrest, prosecution or other criminal or civil consequences based on some action or behavior that law enforcement claimed caused harm to the fetus.
Pregnant women have been criminalized for falling down stairs; giving birth at home; exposing a fetus to dangerous “fumes”; having HIV; not resting enough during the pregnancy; not getting to a hospital fast enough while in labor; being the victim of a shooting; and self-inducing an abortion.
“Once prosecutors decide they want to punish somebody for ending a pregnancy, they will figure out a way to do so,” said Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director of If/When/How, a reproductive justice group.
Substance use is one of the most common allegations, with mothers facing charges even when there’s no evidence of harm to the fetus and in some instances, even after they have given birth to a healthy baby.
Two physician experts testified that Becker’s arrest was rooted in “medical misinformation” and that the claims that meth use causes stillbirths were unfounded. At least 20% of all pregnancies in the US end in miscarriages and stillbirths, often with unknown causes, the doctors wrote, and if the courts treat stillbirths as potential crimes, it will require a dramatic expansion of the role of law enforcement in pregnancy.“
And because there is no bottom to the radicalization of the forced-birth movement, except for maybe holding men criminally responsible for unwanted pregnancies, birth injuries or maternal deaths, legislators are drifting towards legislation that create opportunities to apply the death penalty.
“For decades, the mainstream anti-abortion movement promised that it did not believe women who have abortions should be criminally charged. But now, Republican lawmakers in several US states have introduced legislation proposing homicide and other criminal charges for those seeking abortion care.
The bills have been introduced in states such as Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Some explicitly target medication abortion and self-managed abortion; some look to remove provisions in the law which previously protected pregnant people from criminalization; and others look to establish the fetus as a person from the point of conception.
It is highly unlikely that all of these bills will pass. But their proliferation marks a distinct departure from the language of existing bans and abortion restrictions, which typically exempt people seeking abortion care from criminalization.“
The criminalization of Abortion – the “everyone involved” version.
The 19 attorneys generals do not want to reach beyond their borders and demand access to records just to give women a good scolding when they return. And they can’t prosecute clinics and professionals outside their borders, so why are they doing this?
A. They ARE starting to prosecute the women and B. they want to deploy law enforcement to root out and prosecute anyone who helped them, like the parents of transgender kids seeking care in states that have banned it.
Who can forget Texas’ $10,000 bounty hunter plan, turning citizens into Stasi-adjacent informers against medical professionals, family members or friends who pay for procedures, pharmacist who sell abortion medication, anyone who hands an abortion pill to another, or drives a patient to the site of an abortion. Medical professionals could also face felony charges.
A search warrant on Facebook messages resulted in a Nebraska teenager being sentenced for a self-managed abortion with pills in 2022. Though she is being tried as an adult, her mother was also prosecuted for giving her the pills.
In case you don’t remember much about the Fugitive Slave Acts…
Text for both acts here.
(blog.apaonline.org) On February 12, 1793, Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Act entitled, “An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters.” On September 18, 1850, the second Fugitive Slave Act entitled, “An Act to amend, and supplementary to the act” of 1793, was approved by President Millard Fillmore. These two pieces of legislation brought together the duties of state governments, the role of the federal government, and the expectations of citizens who lived in free states. More importantly, the Acts challenged the ways in which the legal system grappled with the notion of freedom.
The essential difference between the 1793 and 1850 Act was the role of the federal government. The second Act authorized the federal government to develop a more robust process for apprehending and returning fugitive slaves. The process involved commissioners, appointed by federal judges, to issue warrants to slave owners and slave catchers…
The intent of the Fugitive Slave Act was clear. Nonetheless, the Act brought into sharper focus the reach of law, and the tension between protection and freedom as set out in the Declaration of Independence. The founders did not consider enslaved Africans as equals endowed with unalienable rights…
… J.R. Tyson of Pennsylvania deliver[ed] a passionate speech to the House of Representatives on February 28, 1857. Even though Tyson claimed “to deplore the existence of slavery,” in his speech he defended the Fugitive Slave Laws. For this reason, Tyson’s speech is particularly noteworthy for revealing the ideologies that bolstered obedience to the Fugitive Slave Acts…
…that “hereditary labor and service is a system that existed by law in all the colonies, that it was intertwined with social feelings and religious instincts,” that “the law protects not only the master and the country but also the runaway slave,” and “the law has a duty to protect the master’s claim and uphold justice by returning his property, not only because he paid for it, but also because the master and the southern states rely upon African labor for their survival…any debate or question about liberty, justice, and freedom for the slave is immaterial.”
This is partially why the GOP is trying to kill Critical Race Theory programs and the study of accurate American history. Those of us who were taught about George Washington’s chopping down of a cherry tree (false), and his wooden teeth, but missed the bit about his furious efforts to recapture an escaped female slave.
The Surveillance States of America
Surveillance of our activities is not new, pre-dating the age of the cellphone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started abortion surveillance in 1969, documenting the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions, compiling information from many states and reporting areas on legal induced abortions.
“In 2020, 620,327 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. Among 48 reporting areas with data each year during 2011–2020, in 2020, a total of 615,911 abortions were reported, the abortion rate was 11.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, and the abortion ratio was 198 abortions per 1,000 live births.
From 2019 to 2020, the number of abortions decreased 2%, the abortion rate decreased 2%, and the abortion ratio increased 2%. From 2011 to 2020, the number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions decreased 15%, 18%, and 9%, respectively.
Similar to previous years, in 2020, women in their twenties accounted for more than half of abortions (57.2%). Nearly all abortions in 2020 took place early in gestation: 93.1% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation; a smaller number of abortions (5.8%) were performed at 14–20 weeks’ gestation, and even fewer (0.9%) were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation. Early medical abortion is defined as the administration of medication(s) to induce an abortion at ≤9 completed weeks’ gestation, consistent with the current Food and Drug Administration labeling for mifepristone (implemented in 2016). In 2020, 51.0% of all abortions were early medical abortions. Use of early medical abortion increased 22% from 2019 to 2020 and 154% from 2011 to 2020. Source: MMWR. 2022;71.”
Here is the link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation on how to maintain your online privacy.
Safe Havens – update
Several states–California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington-have been strengthening abortion protections to help meet a rise in demand by individuals who might travel from out-of-state for care.
- Connecticut lawmakers passed a bill that protects individuals and providers who travel for abortions from being charged under other states more restrictive laws–by modifying the state’s extradition statutes and and preventing an out-of-state patient’s medical records from being disclosed.
- Oregon lawmakers allocated $15 million dollars through the Oregon Reproductive Equity Fund to help pay the travel expenses for people coming from states with strict abortion laws. California and Maryland both recently passed laws to ensure that abortion costs will be covered by insurance providers. Four states have expanded the pool of medical professionals who can provide abortion, allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to administer abortions.
- 2022: California Governor Gavin Newsom enacted two new bills into law that deal with abortion data privacy within the state.
- KEEPS MEDICAL RECORDS PRIVATE: The California State Legislature passed a bill (AB 1242) that would protect abortion data privacy by preventing out-of-state law enforcement officers from executing search warrants on California-based companies for the purpose of advancing an anti-abortion case, among other provisions. The bill also included provisions to prohibit the arrest of anyone performing a lawful abortion in California.
- PROHIBITS COOPERATION WITH OUT-OF-STATE ENTITIES: Newsom also enacted AB2091, which was introduced by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, prohibits a “healthcare provider from releasing medical information on an individual seeking abortion care in response to a subpoena or request from out-of-state,” the announcement stated. It also prohibits prison staff from disclosing medical information about an incarcerated pregnant person seeking an abortion, specifically if the information was requested based on another state’s law that interfered with the person’s right to an abortion.
- In addition to the data privacy-focused bills, Newsom signed several other bills into law that expand birth control access, AB 2223 – which ensure that pregnancy loss is not criminalized, and expand training options for Nurse Practitioners and Certified Nurse-Midwives.
- 2023: Bill package by the California Legislative Women’s Caucus
- AB 90 (Petrie-Norris) Improves access to long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) for those seeking abortion services.
- AB 254 (Bauer-Kahan) Adds CMIA/HIPAA protections for data collected by menstrual, fertility, and sexual health apps and websites.
- AB 352 (Bauer-Kahan) Enhances privacy protections for medical records related to abortion, pregnancy loss, and other sensitive services through electronic health record sharing and health information exchanges.
- AB 571 (Petrie-Norris) Ensures that medical malpractice insurance includes coverage for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care.
- AB 576 (Weber) Aligns Medi-Cal coverage of medication abortion with evidence-based clinical guidelines.
- AB 598 (Wicks) Requires school districts to participate in the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) and include a module on sexual and reproductive health care as one of the core survey modules.
- AB 710 (Schiavo) Launches a public information campaign to provide women with accurate information regarding access to abortion care at crisis pregnancy centers.
- AB 793 (Bonta) Provides privacy protections for digital data related to patients accessing abortion services in California.
- AB 1194 (Carrillo) Ensures that California Privacy Rights Act protections always extend to accessing, procuring, or searching for services regarding contraception, pregnancy care, and perinatal care, including abortion services.
- AB 1432 (Carrillo) Requires every health insurance policy or certificate that is issued, or delivered to a resident of California, regardless of the situs of the contract, to comply with California laws that require coverage of abortion services and gender-affirming care.
- AB 1481 (Boerner-Horvath) Clarifies Presumptive Eligibility for Pregnant Individuals (currently called PE4PW) coverage policies and ensures PE4PW patients can access abortion services regardless of other health coverage.
- AB 1646 (Nguyen) Expands access to abortion and gender-affirming care by allowing out-of-state medical school graduates to practice in California for up 90 days.
- AB 1707 (Pacheco) Provider Protections
- SB 36 (Skinner) Strengthens safe haven protections by making it illegal for bail agents or bounty hunters to apprehend people in California and protect access to public benefits.
- SB 345 (Skinner) Provides legal protections for medication abortions and gender-affirming care.
- SB 385 (Atkins) Seeks to extend many of the updated training rules from SB 1375 last year to additional providers (i.e. physician assistants, etc.)
- SB 487 (Atkins) Provides additional safeguards for California abortion providers and other entities and individuals that serve and support abortion patients that reside in states with hostile abortion laws.
Reading
- (Wiki) “War on women“
- (MSNBC) Why Republican state AGs are seeking out-of-state medical records. The Biden administration wants to prevent investigators from seeking out-of-state private medical records. Republican AGs have a problem with that.
- (CRS reports.congress.gov) Abortion, Data Privacy, and Law Enforcement Access: A Legal Overview
- (Mississippi Free Press) Mississippi Attorney General Wants Info On Out-of-State Abortions, Gender-Affirming Care
- (lgbtqnation.com) Republican AGs demand Biden administration allow them to keep access to out-of-state medical records – The Republicans say that they need out-of-state medical records to enforce state bans on abortion and gender-affirming care.
- (theHill) Democrats urge White House to do more to protect patients from red state abortion probes
- (lgbtqnation.com) Tennessee AG made a hospital hand over trans kids’ medical records – Parents and children are terrified.
- (STAT) HIPAA won’t protect you if prosecutors want your reproductive health records
- (Center for Reproductive Rights) After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State. CA has an interstate shield
- (https://constitution.congress.gov/) ArtIV.S1.4.2 Modern Doctrine on State Law on Full Faith and Credit Clause
- (Federal Register) RIN Number 0945-AA30 HIPAA Privacy Rule To Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (Closed 6/16/23)
- (Attorneys General Letter) Letter in protest of RIN Number 0945-AA30 HIPAA Privacy Rule To Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy
- (thehelm.co) Womanhood Is Not a Pre-Existing Condition
- (Jezebel) Biden Administration Moves to Ban Healthcare Workers From Reporting Abortions to Police – The proposed rule would close a loophole in HIPAA that allows doctors and nurses to call the cops on their patients
- (Jezebel) 19 Republican Attorneys General Want Police to Investigate People for Abortions – Nearly half of the top law enforcement officers in the country are asking the Biden administration to allow doctors and nurses to report suspected abortions.
- (Yale Law Journal) The Abortion Interoperability Trap
- (politico) Biden admin to shore up HIPAA to protect abortion seekers and providers – Advocates have long demanded data privacy improvements as doctors and patients fear prosecution post-Roe.
- (politico) Biden’s HIPAA expansion for abortion draws criticism, lawsuit threats – Congressional Democrats say the Biden administration’s privacy rule doesn’t go far enough
- (Jezebel) Nebraska Teen Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to Self-Managed Abortion – Celeste Burgess, 18, faces up to two years in prison for taking abortion pills and burying a stillborn fetus in 2022. Her mother faces 8 years.
- (Jezebel) 5 States Are Considering Bills That Would Classify Abortion as Homicide
- (Marketplace) A family fled Texas to protect their transgender child. They’re still afraid.
- (www.whtv) AG Lynn Fitch wants to make info on out-of-state abortions available to Mississippi authorities
- (Guardian) She was jailed for losing a pregnancy. Her nightmare could become more common
- (Guardian) Republicans push wave of bills that would bring homicide charges for abortion
- The attorneys general involved: Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall; Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor; Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin; Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr; Idaho Attorney General Raúl R. Labrador; Indiana Attorney General Theodore E. Rokita; Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron; Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry; Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey; Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen; Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers; North Dakota Attorney General Drew H. Wrigley; Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost; South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson; South Dakota Attorney General Marty J. Jackley; Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti; Texas Provisional Attorney General John Scott; and Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes.
- (Time) What Abortion Safe Haven States Can Do
- (healthhitsecurity) CA Governor Enacts 2 Laws Protecting Abortion Data Privacy
- (PBS) North Carolina overrides governor’s veto, bans abortion after 12 weeks
- (advocate) 22 GOP Attorneys General Sue USDA Over LGBTQ+ Non-Discrimination
- (Wired) https://www.wired.com/story/states-with-abortion-bans-are-losing-a-generation-of-ob-gyns/
- (Guardian) Republicans block bill on right to travel across state lines for abortions – as it happened
- (Washington Post) Highways are the next antiabortion target. One Texas town is resisting.
- (NBC) Idaho becomes one of the most extreme anti-abortion states with law restricting travel for abortions
- (MSNBC) GOP efforts to curtail out-of-state abortions take a radical turn
- (Slate) The Texas Bans on Abortion “Trafficking” Are Even Scarier Than They Sound
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 