SC AG Alan Wilson opposes federal rule change aimed at protecting abortion medical records
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is challenging federal privacy regulations that could prevent states from seeking and investigating medical records for out-of-state abortions.
Last month, Wilson and 18 other Republican attorney generals, who referred to the rule as a product of "fearmongering" signed onto an effort led by Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch to decry the rule. The letter was first reported by Mississippi Today.
In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a regulation that would bolster HIPAA, a federal privacy statute related to healthcare, in reproductive health cases. The rule would disallow states from gathering information from other states that still permit abortion access even if there was a court order with law enforcement involvement.
Parts of the rule also focused on protecting physician-patient confidentiality. This is in lieu of restrictive abortion bans across the U.S. that risk criminalizing providers and patients after the fall of Roe v. Wade last summer.
The 18 attorney generals say the rule would "curtail the ability of state officials to obtain evidence of potential violations of state laws."
They said HIPAA, though it protects medical records, is not above state authority, which they argue is the ultimate authority in regulating public health and healthcare issues.
The letter asks, "What if state officials had reason to believe an abortion provider deliberately performed an abortion in violation of state law, resulting in serious injury to the woman, and the provider then falsified medical records and referred the woman to an out-of-state provider to cover it up?"
In that scenario, the attorney generals say the state would have the authority to investigate those cases across borders.
To add to that, the attorney generals also fear privacy protections for records related to "reproductive organs" could be used as a strategy to protect gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth.
Robert Kittle, spokesperson for Wilson's office, said the proposal was unlawful as only Congress has the authority to make changes to the HIPAA law, not the executive branch.
"Attorney General Wilson has always been pro-life, but even setting that aside, this proposed regulation is another example of the Biden administration not following the law," Kittle said in a statement.
Here's what to know about the current SC abortion law
Current state law allows abortions up to 20 weeks. The new six-week abortion ban, which has exceptions for rape and incest, would penalize abortion care providers for performing abortions after cardiac activity is detected on the ultrasound.
At its core, the privacy rights tussle spotlights similar arguments made again recently to the S.C. Supreme Court.
The High Court is currently in the midst of gauging the state's new six-week abortion ban to see if the state government's interest in protecting a fetus eclipses a woman's privacy rights.
In the Statehouse, lawmakers have made attempts to introduce provisions to ban out of state abortions and even make abortion a felony that could warrant the death penalty. However, those provisions were eventually removed as Republicans believed it would deter the passage of an anti-abortion law.
Lawmakers argue the new abortion laws do not seek to incriminate women, but previous instances of self-induced abortions cast doubts.
Meanwhile, a ban on gender-affirming care will likely be picked up next year despite medical associations and parents of transgender youth denouncing the effort.
Check back for updates.
Devyani Chhetri covers SC politics for the Greenville News. You can reach her at dchhetri@gannett.com or @ChhetriDevyani.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC AG Wilson opposes rule change aimed at protecting abortion records
