– Tennessee Lookout

tennesseelookout.com

By Anita Wadhwani January 11, 2030

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined Republican counterparts in 18

other states in an effort to prevent the federal government from shielding the medical
records of those who cross state lines to obtain legal abortion or gender-affirming care
from investigations in their home state.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed a new privacy
rule for certain medical records in response to the Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion
rights last year. The rule would prohibit disclosure of medical records of those who seek
reproductive health care in a state in which the care is legal from officials or litigants in a
home state in which it is not.

Under the proposed rule, the records would be shielded from law enforcement, court
subpoenas and in civil lawsuits and family court proceedings.

“The proposed rule here continues the Administration’s efforts to override state abortion
law,” a June 16 letter from the attorneys general to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

The letter called the move to amend HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act — unconstitutional, a result of “political pressure from the White House”
that would interfere with state’s abilities to protect the health and safety of their citizens
and to pursue evidence of criminal activity.

The existence of the letter was first reported Friday by the Mississippi Free Press.

A spokesperson for Skrmetti on Monday reiterated the letter’s assertion that the federal
agency was overstepping its authority in contemplating the new privacy rule.

“HHS does not have authority to change the law in contradiction of the statute passed by
Congress,” Elizabeth Lane Johnson, a spokesperson for Skrmetti, said in a statement
Monday.

The rule was first proposed in April after President Joe Biden issued an executive order
directing HHS to “consider ways to strengthen the protection of sensitive information
related to reproductive health care services and bolster patient-provider confidentiality,”
the department said.
In unveiling the proposed rule — which are in the midst of the federal government’s rule-
making process — HHS Office of Civil Rights Director Melanie Fontes Rainer said they
were also in response to the concerns of doctors and patients who feared adverse actions
for those seeking care in another state that is illegal or restricted in their own.

“Today’s proposed rule is about safeguarding this trust in the patient-provider relationship,
and ensuring that when you go to the doctor, your private medical records will not be
disclosed and used against you for seeking lawful care,” Fontes Rainer said. “This is a real
problem we are hearing and seeing, and we developed today’s proposed rule to help
address this gap and provide clarity to our health care providers and patients.”

In their letter, attorneys general pushed back against the notion that they would seek to
prosecute those seeking care outside their home state, calling such a claim “fear-
mongering.” The letter notes that state laws criminalizing abortion consistently provide an
exception for women seeking the procedure. While the HHS proposed rule does not
explicitly mention transgender care, the attorneys generals conclude in their letter that
such care would fall under the umbrella of the plan.

They provided a hypothetical: Should officials believe an abortion provider in their home
state provided an illegal abortion, falsified medical records then sent their patient out of
state to cover it up, the HHS rule would bar their investigation.

The letter also suggests the rule “could inhibit State’s investigation of child abuse and
other serious crimes” and would bar a complete investigation into a doctor licensed in
multiple states.

While the letter does not specify the circumstances in which child abuse investigations
would warrant out-of-state reproductive health care records, it criticizes the federal
government’s “radical approach to transgender issues” and says the “Administration may
intend to use the proposed rule to obstruct state laws concerning experimental gender-
transition procedures for minors.”