The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects sensitive patient health information (PHI) from being shared without the patient’s consent. The specific guidance they’re referring to prohibits using or sharing PHI related to lawful reproductive healthcare, and requires signed attestation that any PHI requests won’t be used for purposes of investigating or imposing liability.
Withdrawing this guidance would mean that abortion records (and other reproductive healthcare) would be unsealed and the women within the records could be subject to legal action. As states criminalize abortion, women could be subject to felony charges, incarceration, steep fines and potentially lose civil rights such as voting. Additionally, with the criminal cases, women would stand to lose employment, housing and general day-to-day security in their lives.
