11 September 2024

Welcome to the Handmaiden's Tale

Corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing to override HIPPA so that he can prosecute women for going out of state for abortions.

Yeah, the party of small government wants to be able to pry into a woman's most private and personal decision:

Texas has sued to block federal rules that prohibit investigators from viewing the medical records of women who travel out of state to seek abortions where the procedure is legal.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Lubbock, targets medical privacy regulations that were issued in 2000, and takes aim at a rule issued in April that specifically bans disclosing medical records for criminal or civil investigations into “the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing or facilitating reproductive health care.”

Texas bans abortions in almost all circumstances. Women are not subject to criminal prosecution for obtaining abortions, but state law imposes penalties of as much as life in prison for those who aid in obtaining abortions.

The lawsuit claims that the privacy rules ignore federal law that lets states view medical records “for law enforcement purposes.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Texas’ attorney general, Ken Paxton, called the April rule “a backdoor attempt at weakening Texas’ laws.” He added: “The Biden administration’s motive is clear: to subvert lawful state investigations on issues that the courts have said the states may investigate.”

………

The April regulation came in direct response to abortion bans enacted by many Republican state legislatures after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A number of those states, including Texas and Alabama, have signaled their interest in extending those bans to include women who cross state lines to get an abortion.

The lawsuit filed on Wednesday also asserts that the rule covers “hormone and drug therapy for gender dysphoria, surgical procedures related to gender dysphoria, and gender experimentation.” Texas bars minors from obtaining gender-transition surgery and related care like hormone therapy.

Whether Texas investigators have sought records of women who traveled out of state for abortions is unclear. But Mr. Paxton, a Republican, has demanded records on gender-transition care from organizations in Washington State and Georgia. In March, a judge temporarily blocked Mr. Paxton from forcing an L.G.B.T.Q. organization to turn over documents.

People like Ken Paxton are not the opposition, they are the enemy.

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