Incredible Lack of Awareness

[OwnTheRide]

Read this article by Jumbo James, or the snippet below, and replace mentions of "abortion" or "reproductive health care" with "guns" or "defense of self." It's astounding how a person - a lawyer, at that - can make such an argument without realizing how blatantly inconsistent their positions are. Either you support using a person's medical information against them, or you don't. Supporting it only when it works against political positions you oppose demonstrates a stunning lack of self-awareness.

The Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 plunged the United States into a quagmire as anti-choice states hurried to ban abortion or enact draconian restrictions on access in its wake. Though 14 states and counting have banned abortions entirely, we will continue to tirelessly defend and protect a patient’s right to access the legal reproductive health care that they want and need. That is why we applaud the Biden administration’s recently published changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, which will strengthen people’s trust that their health information is safe and will not be weaponized against them for seeking, obtaining, providing or helping someone obtain lawful reproductive health care.

This updated regulation is imperative in our current post-Roe climate, as people potentially face investigation, civil liability or even criminal prosecution for obtaining or providing health care. This threat is ever more present as states attempt to prevent people from traveling across state lines for health care through travel bans and so-called “abortion trafficking laws.” While we know that such laws are unconstitutional, they nonetheless raise the specter of invasive inquiries into people’s private health information. We commend the Biden administration for recognizing the need to safeguard people from the long arm of abortion opponents for whom state-level restrictions are not enough.

The new privacy rule makes clear that protected health information, or PHI, such as your name, your address or other information that can be used to identify you, cannot be disclosed for an investigation into accessing, administering or facilitating reproductive health care that is lawful. That means the patient sought or received care in a state where that care is legal, or when the patient is protected under federal law such as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which guarantees access to emergency room care in most hospitals. Though the HIPAA privacy rule generally protects patient information, loopholes in the previous regulations permitted disclosure of PHI for certain criminal, civil and administrative investigations and proceedings. Without these new regulations, anti-abortion states could exploit that loophole and attempt to access and exploit patients’ records in connection with a legal abortion or other reproductive care.

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[Carlos Hathcock]

It's obvious she likes to have her cake (and everyones elses in the room) and eat it too. Trump on trial but no indictments for her.