COURTESY MISSOURI GOVERNOR'S OFFICE
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
In April, the Biden administration proposed a change to medical privacy laws in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last June. The rule would bar health care providers and insurance companies from sharing records relating to reproductive health care in states where the care is legal.
Biden's proposal was an explicit move to prevent patients' information from being used to investigate, sue or prosecute abortion seekers or their health care provider for lawful abortions or "legal reproductive health care."
The Republican attorneys general, in a letter drafted by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office, argued Biden's rule was a slap against rights returned to the states after the Supreme Court's decision last summer.
In its Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, thus returning the issue of "regulating or prohibition abortion" to "citizens of each state." States now have much more discretion to criminalize or prohibit abortion.
Biden's proposal is an attempt to "wrest control over abortion back from the people and their elected representatives," the attorneys general argued in their letter to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.
It's also a "solution in search of a problem," the AGs continued. Biden's proposed rule would upset the "careful, decades-old" balance of current Department of Health and Human Services regulations that have "safeguarded the privacy of individual health information" for over 20 years.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountancy Act blocks health information from being shared without the patients' consent or knowledge. But the AGs say exceptions have always been made for law enforcement or health oversight agencies to investigate state law violations and protect public health.
The AGs further stated that the Biden administration has "pushed a false narrative" that states are seeking to criminalize pregnant women or medical personnel who provide lifesaving care.
Missouri's abortion ban states that medical providers who provide abortions can be charged, and GOP politicians in the state, including Governor Mike Parson, have said formerly-pregnant people could not be prosecuted for violation of the law. But the law's phrasing causes some legal experts to believe abortion patients could be prosecuted.
Many of the AGs' states, including Missouri, have limited access to gender-affirming care. Their comments claim the rule could also be leveraged to protect "radical transgender-policy goals" through its broad definition of reproductive health care.
"Given its far-reaching and radical approach to transgender issues, the Administration may intend to use the proposed rule to obstruct state laws concerning experimental gender-transition procedures for minors (such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions)" the AGs wrote.
The Department of Health and Human Services will release a final rule later this year, Politico reports. Current HIPPA rules permit, but do not require, disclosure of private health information to law enforcement officers under certain conditions, such as under court order.
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