Late last month the Biden administration issued new rules designed to keep prosecutors

from getting the medical records of patient seeking legal abortions. The expansion

of the prevent it from being used to prosecute an instance where a pregnant person goes out of

state for a legal abortion.

The rules are to take effect in late June.

Carmel Schakar heads the Health Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard University.

Carmel, I think there are a lot of people

have misperceptions about HIPAA.

They think that their medical information

goes locked into a vault almost,

behind an impenetrable wall.

So why are these new rules needed?

So I wish that HIPAA was that kind of lockbox.

The truth is that HIPAA's a little bit more

like a pasta strainer.

So it keeps some information protected,

but there's a lot of exceptions.

And one of the exceptions that has been there from the start is if law enforcement goes to your medical provider and says,

hey, we need these patients medical records for an investigation.

And ever since Dobbs undid the constitutional protections for abortion,

people are afraid that police law enforcement in states that have banned abortion

will use that exception to get patients medical records.

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