Because the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs opinion reversed Roe v. Wade, abortion is now—or soon will be—illegal in several states, and many states are considering laws that would prohibit residents from obtaining abortions in other states or could punish those who facilitate such procedures.
These new or impending post-Dobbs laws have created concerns that reproductive health information could form the basis of civil or criminal actions.
In this article, published in Bloomberg, DWT's Adam Greene discusses guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights on how HIPAA does and does not apply to the privacy of reproductive health information. Adam analyzes gaps in privacy protection that remain, and complications from the Information Blocking Rule that mandates disclosures of health information, and then identifies steps that health care providers and HHS may consider to further protect the privacy of reproductive health information.