Biden Administration Proposes Stricter Patient Privacy Rules for Abortion-Seekers

The Biden administration is taking new steps to protect the privacy of abortion-seekers after a federal judge halted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.
The new actions were announced on April 12, ahead of the third meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Health Access.
“Efforts to protect sensitive health information, including related to reproductive health care, have taken on renewed importance, as states seek to penalize and criminalize health care providers and interfere in deeply personal medical decisions,” the White House said in a statement.
One of the new measures the administration outlined is a proposed Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule to prevent the disclosure of an individual’s health information “to investigate, sue, or prosecute an individual, a health care provider, or a loved one” because that person “sought, obtained, provided, or facilitated legal reproductive health care, including an abortion.”…