Biden administration will propose new privacy safeguards for women seeking abortions

CNN — The US Department of Health and Human Services will propose a new rule on Wednesday, aimed at safeguarding privacy and prohibiting the prosecution of individuals who seek abortions. In a call with reporters, senior administration officials previewed the notice of proposed rulemaking from the Biden administration, issued in response to a Texas federal judge’s ruling late last week to suspend the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of medication abortion drug mifepristone. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters/File “Specifically, this NPRM proposes to strengthen privacy protections by prohibiting the use or disclosure of protected health information by regulated entities, such as health insurance plans, providers and others, specifically for a criminal, civil or administrative investigation into proceeding against a person in connection with seeking, obtaining, providing or facilitating reproductive health care where such health care is lawful under the circumstances in which it was provided,” a senior administration official said. The administration took similar limited steps to protect access to abortion after the Dobbs decision, but Friday’s ruling set off calls from frustrated progressive Democrats for the FDA and Biden administration to ignore the ruling – a request that the administration has said would set a “dangerous precedent.” A separate and conflicting abortion pill ruling in Washington on the same day, created arguably the most contentious and chaotic legal flashpoint over abortion access since last summer. The vice president, a third senior administration official said, will “highlight the administration’s unwavering commitment to protecting reproductive rights in the midst of a health care crisis.” “The vice president will also point out that this unprecedented decision is not only an attack on women’s freedom to make decisions about her own body, but it also threatens our nation’s system of drug approvals and the rights of Americans across the country who expect that a medication approved by the FDA and prescribed by their doctor will be available to them when they need it,” the official continued.