White House Announces New Actions in Response to Roe v. Wade
To mark what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare issued a fact sheet announcing new actions to strengthen access to contraception and medication abortions, and ensure that patients receive the emergency medical care they need.
The Task Force explained that the overturning of Roe v. Wade resulted in extreme state abortion bans. “These dangerous state laws have caused chaos and confusion, as women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to travel hundreds of miles, or required to go to court to seek permission for the health care they need,” wrote the Task Force.
The fact sheet explains some of the actions that have been taken by federal agencies in response to President Biden’s three Executive Orders and a Presidential Memorandum on access to reproductive health care, strengthening access to contraception and affordability for women with health insurance, reinforcing obligations to cover affordable contraception, educating patients and care providers about rights and obligations for emergency medical care, and protecting access to safe and legal medication abortion.
The Task Force has confirmed that while the overturning of Roe V. Wade removed the Federal right to abortion, it did not prohibit women from traveling to another state to seek the care they need. The Alabama Attorney General had threatened to prosecute people who provided assistance to women seeking lawful out-of-state abortions, and in November 2023, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in two lawsuits challenging the Alabama Attorney General’s threats stating that “prosecutions infringed the constitutional right to travel and made clear that states may not punish third parties for assisting women in exercising that right.”
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The HHS has written to U.S. governors to invite them to apply for Section 1115 waivers to expand access to care under the Medicaid program to women who are prohibited from receiving abortion care in the states where they live and may be denied care under the Medicaid program. The HHS continues to encourage state leaders to consider and develop new waiver proposals to support access to reproductive health care services.
In April 2023, the HHS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that strengthened reproductive health privacy under HIPAA. The proposed rule prevents an individual’s information from being disclosed to investigate, sue, or prosecute an individual, a health care provider, or a loved one simply because that person sought, obtained, provided, or facilitated legal reproductive health care, including abortion. The new rule will strengthen patient-provider confidentiality and help healthcare providers give complete and accurate information to patients.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking steps to prevent the illegal use and sharing of sensitive health information, such as reproductive health information, and has already taken action against companies that are alleged to have disclosed sensitive data without consumers’ consent, including precise geolocation information that could indicate a visit to a reproductive health center. In 2022, the FTC sued Kochava over the collection and sale of precise location data and settlements have recently been proposed that prohibit the data companies X-Mode Social/Outlogic and InMarket Media from selling precise location data.
The The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently published a new guide for consumers on best practices that can be adopted to protect personal data, including geolocation data on mobile phones and the HHS has also guidance for consumers on how to protect data on personal cell phones or tablets when using mobile health apps such as period trackers, which are generally not protected by HIPAA.
Guidance has also been issued by the HHS that affirms that doctors and other medical providers can take steps to protect patients’ electronic health information, including reproductive health care information, and confirms that patients have the right to ask that their electronic health information generally not be disclosed by a physician, hospital, or other health care provider. The HHS has also launched a website – ReproductiveRights.gov – that provides individuals with timely and accurate information about their rights concerning reproductive healthcare.
The Department of Education has issued guidance to school officials reminding them of their obligations to protect student privacy under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and that they must obtain written consent from eligible students or parents before disclosing personally identifiable information from students’ educational records, including student health information. The department has also created a new resource for students to explain their rights with respect to health information privacy.
