Stephen Murphy

In its recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court held there is no constitutional right to abortion. The dissenters in Dobbs warned of far-reaching state restrictions that may include blocking pregnant individuals from traveling to another state to terminate a pregnancy; prohibiting pregnant individuals from obtaining abortion pills out-of-state; and even criminalizing the provision of information to those seeking out-of-state abortions. With these broad ramifications in mind, the threat of law enforcement gaining access to health records is a growing concern. In this fact sheet, we provide additional guidance on how HIPAA applies to abortion records. We caution that HIPAA includes several provisions permitting disclosure of an individual’s abortion records to law enforcement when specific conditions are met.

The COVID pandemic has brought into sharp focus the crucial nature of data in helping drive decision-making, directing public health interventions, focusing limited resources, and allocating precious grant dollars. The new federal Information Blocking Rule may provide local and state health departments with an additional tool to enhance collection of key public health data and overcome some of the barriers to reporting of data by health care providers and others.