Abortion Privacy Demands New Rules, Senators Tell Health Agency

The Department of Health and Human Services should strengthen federal privacy protections for patients seeking reproductive care, according to a group of 30 US senators.

The senators—all Democrats except Independent Bernie Sanders (Vt.)—are calling on the agency to revise privacy rules issued under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, to restrict health care providers from sharing abortion-related records with state and local law enforcement.

The issue of health care data-sharing has come under a spotlight since the US Supreme Court overturned the national right to terminate a pregnancy, leaving it up to states to decide whether ...