A new rule from Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday would ban medical groups and doctors from sharing information with authorities who are investigating illegal abortion practices.
The proposed rule is one of the many ways the Biden administration has been working to bolster the billion dollar abortion industry since the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling. Pro-abortion groups donate huge amounts of money to get pro-abortion Democrats elected to office.
The AP reports the new rule comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the purported goal of protecting patients’ privacy.
“We’ve had many conversations with providers, major medical associations and patient advocates about what they’re seeing on the ground and how the federal government can be helpful in ensuring medical records are kept private,” HHS Office of Civil Rights director Melanie Fontes Rainer said in a statement.
If implemented, the rule would ban medical groups like hospitals and doctors offices from sharing medical records with authorities who are investigating illegal abortion acts in states where abortions are legal. The rule must undergo a 60-day comment period and then review before it can go into effect.
A fact sheet from the Biden administration says the rule “would prohibit doctors, other health care providers, and health plans from disclosing individuals’ protected health information, including information related to reproductive health care, under certain circumstances.”
It continues, “Specifically, the rule would prevent an individual’s information from being disclosed to investigate, sue, or prosecute an individual, a health care provider, or a loved one simply because that person sought, obtained, provided, or facilitated legal reproductive health care, including abortion.”
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! To help us stand against Joe Biden’s abortion agenda, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!
Although Biden administration officials spoke about protecting “reproductive health,” their statements about the Dobbs ruling made it clear that the proposed rule really is about hindering investigations of illegal elective abortions and abortion-related crimes in pro-life states.
For example, the rule potentially could thwart investigations into human trafficking and other abuses where underage victims frequently are forced or coerced into aborting their unborn babies. Idaho just passed a law prohibiting underage girls from being transported across state lines for abortions without a parent’s knowledge, but the rule could make it more difficult for authorities to enforce the law.
“Protecting individuals’ health information has taken on a critical importance following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson,” a senior administration official said during a Tuesday evening call with the press, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Here’s more from the report:
The official who spoke on background Tuesday ahead of the official announcement noted that HHS currently has guidance that tells health care providers and insurance companies that HIPAA disclosures are “permissible, meaning you can say no to them.”
“This rule actually goes a step further than that because we found that even with the permissible disclosures, some providers get fearful when they receive a subpoena, or they might feel like they have to turn the information over,” an official said.
When news about the proposed rule broke in February, former HHS Office of Civil Rights director Roger Severino warned that it could hinder attempts to seek justice for crime victims.
The proposal appears to be an attempt “to twist HIPAA to use it as a bludgeon against the Dobbs decision and interfere with cooperation with law enforcement,” Severino told Bloomberg at the time. It also could “scare medical providers from cooperating with police in states where abortion is restricted,” he continued.
State laws that ban or limit abortions penalize abortionists who kill unborn babies in violation of the law. They do not punish mothers, who often are second victims of the profit-driven, manipulative abortion industry. The pro-life movement has made it very clear that pro-lifers oppose punishing mothers.
The president and his team have been working aggressively to expand killing unborn babies in abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
According to Bloomberg, the Democrat leader also wants to weaken religious freedom protections for pro-life doctors and nurses by changing “a Trump-era rule that observers say would make it more difficult for providers to decline offering abortions due to religious objections.”
Recently, Biden ended long-standing safety requirements for abortion drugs and began allowing pharmacies to sell them. His administration also wants to force VA hospitals to do abortions even in states where killing unborn babies is illegal and is forcing taxpayers to fund abortion travel for military members and their families who live in pro-life states.
For nearly 50 years under Roe, abortions destroyed more than 64 million unborn babies in abortions. Only now that Roe has been overturned may states again protect the right to life for all human beings, born and unborn.
New data this week shows tens of thousands of unborn babies have been saved from abortion in the first five months after the June ruling.
