Texas judge overturns pro-abortion, transgender HIPAA provisions

A federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday that Biden administration changes made to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, were illegal. The former administration added a category called reproductive healthcare–which it interpreted to include information about abortions and transgender procedures–to the list of legally protected information under HIPAA. The policy change barred medical professionals and insurance companies from sharing information about legal abortions or transgender procedures with law enforcement investigating crimes. The Wednesday ruling overturned the law nationwide.

What was the judge’s reasoning? U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk accused the Biden administration of using the policy change as a shield against states with laws that protect against the killing of unborn children. The 2024 change puts special rules in place around information for politically favored procedures, according to Kacsmaryk’s ruling. The Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t have the authority to pick and choose what kinds of health information falls under HIPAA protection, according to the order. Only Congress can enact heightened HIPAA protections, the Trump-appointed judge added.

Officials fear that if doctors are allowed to share medical information with law enforcement women will stop seeking doctors or picking up prescriptions, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said when the new rule first came out. The Biden administration aims to strengthen protections for people seeking reproductive medicine no matter where they are, he added.

The ruling stems from a case filed by a Texas doctor, alleging that the heightened protections bar doctors from reporting suspected child abuse to law enforcement. Texas law requires doctors to report suspected abuse to state officials, but Biden’s new rule may undermine the law’s efficacy, according to Dr. Carmen Purl’s lawsuit. When treating a pregnant woman, both mother and child are patients and elective abortion harms both, Purl’s lawsuit alleged.

Medical interventions attempting to change one’s biological sex are harmful to a patient’s physical and mental health, the complaint continued. The new 2024 rule could prevent Purl from reporting abuse indicators like minors seeking an abortion or contracting a sexually transmitted disease, the lawsuit alleged. The new rule would also bar Purl from alerting authorities of minors receiving illegal transgender procedures, like sex-change surgeries or cross-sex hormones, according to the lawsuit.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report about Purl’s lawsuit from last October.