
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake regarding a public comment ADF submitted Monday urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw a Biden administration proposed rule change to federal health privacy laws that exacerbates the problems caused by a 2024 Biden administration rule favoring “gender transitions” and abortions:
“Doctors and states should be able to protect patients from abuse. Late in the Biden administration, HHS amended the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations, weaponizing laws about privacy that have nothing to do with abortion or gender identity. The new proposed rule on HIPAA security, published just days before President Trump’s new appointees could review the rule, further embeds into HIPAA the illegal 2024 Biden rule that undermines state laws that protect mothers and unborn children from the harms of abortion, and vulnerable children from dangerous and sterilizing procedures like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and life-altering surgeries. Moving forward with the new proposed rule would violate President Trump’s clear executive orders protecting women and children from the harms of gender ideology. We urge the Trump administration to swiftly withdraw this proposed rule, and to take all necessary steps to eliminate the 2024 Biden HIPAA abortion and gender-transition rule.”
The previous administration’s changes to rules under HIPAA added unprecedented restrictions on doctors’ ability to report abuse and on states’ ability to protect children from abortion and gender-transition drugs and surgeries. Without authority from the HIPAA statute, the new rule redefined “person” and “public health” to exclude unborn children and limited how doctors and law enforcement can protect patients from abuse when it involves abortion or gender-transition procedures.
ADF attorneys represent Texas family physician Carmen Purl, M.D., who won a preliminary injunction against the previous administration’s rule changes because she wants to protect her patients by reporting suspected abuse and to safeguard the health and safety of mothers and children.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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