Biden Administration Issues New Rule to Protect the Privacy of Women who get Abortions

President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday issued a final rule aimed at strengthening privacy protections for women who seek abortions. The new guideline bans the disclosure of protected health information related to reproductive health.

The new rule was issued through the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department and Human Services. It further strengthens existing provisions under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule.

The new rule specifically bans the use of protected reproductive health information to identify, investigate, or punish individuals, healthcare providers, or others seeking to obtain, provide, or facilitate reproductive healthcare like abortion.

President Biden has been a vocal critic of strict abortion laws. The new law by Biden’s administration is meant to protect women living in states like Idaho that have “criminalized” abortion, who often have to travel to states where abortion is legal to get the procedure.

More women are traveling across states to get abortions legally

The number of women traveling to get the procedure legally done has spiked since states started impeding abortion rights. Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, said around 92,100 women crossed state lines to get abortions legally in the first half of 2023. This is more than double the number in the same period in 2020. 

Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Alabama are further clamping down on women trying to cross state lines to get abortions legally by making it a crime to help or pay for such trips. There are pending lawsuits over such measures in Idaho and Alabama. 

In addition to the patients, the new law also protects insurers, healthcare providers, and other entities directly or indirectly involved in abortions. According to President Biden, nobody’s medical records should be “used against them, their doctor, or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive healthcare”.

Announcing the new rule, Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services said, “Each and every American still has a right to their privacy, especially when it comes to their very private, very personal health information”.

Limitations of the new rule

The new law is only applicable in situations where reproductive healthcare is provided lawfully. Therefore, it would be voided in states where abortion is banned. However, it will still apply to people who move interstate to legally get the procedure.

The first proposal of the rule was made last year by the department. However, the final rule added a provision shielding providers in states where abortion has been banned if their patient chose to receive the procedure out of state. The providers are protected from disclosing those abortions to state authorities.

In the past, anti-abortion groups have contested similar pro-abortion rules in court. The recent law is likely going to face the same fate.