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Republican KY AG Cameron MAY Have Tried To Obtain The Patient Records Of Women Who Had Abortions. [1]

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Date: 2023-07-18

Rachel Maddow put me onto this news about how 19 Republican State AG’s raising hell about a privacy protection that the Biden Administration put in place after the Dobbs decision. Turns out, one of those state AG’s is Kentucky’s Daniel Cameron, who is running for governor this year. When asked by Joe Sonka of the The Louisville Courier-Journal if Cameron had tried to obtain patient information on women who have had out of state abortions, Cameron’s Office declined to answer.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron signed onto a letter last month opposing a proposed federal privacy rule that would block state officials from obtaining information on residents' reproductive health care services obtained outside the state. Cameron was one of 19 Republican attorneys general who signed onto the June 16 letter, opposing the change proposed in April by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to amend HIPAA patient privacy rules. The rule change would block state authorities from obtaining protected information about reproductive health care services obtained lawfully out of state "for criminal, civil, or administrative investigations or proceedings" against those individuals or regulated entities. Such protected patient information on reproductive health care services would include, but not be limited to, those related to pregnancy, contraception, fertility, prenatal care, miscarriage management and abortion.

Emphasis is mine.

And why do those Republican AG’s oppose this rule change?

However, the letter of Republican attorneys general that Cameron signed onto in June accuses the Biden administration of seeking to "wrest control over abortion back from the people in defiance of the Constitution and Dobbs," based on "a false narrative that States are seeking to treat pregnant women as criminals or punish medical personnel who provide lifesaving care." The letter, led by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, argues the rule change would upset the balance of safeguarding patient privacy with "permitting disclosure of information to state authorities to protect public health, safety, and welfare," along with unlawfully interfering with states’ authority to enforce their laws.

Then why dear Republican AG’s do you need to know the private reproductive care of women who leave the state to obtain an abortion? Call me a cynic, but I do not trust any of the Republicans when it comes to a woman’s reproductive health because they have LIED about their intentions for decades now. If you ban an abortion in your state, you have to prosecute someone when a woman obtains an abortion. Right now, it’s aimed at doctors. But until Republicans get their NATIONAL BAN through, the next step would be prosecuting women who obtain an out of state abortion.

And if you think this is all hypothetical, I would like to remind everyone that one of the 19 AG’s who signed this letter, Tennessee State Attorney General Skrmetti, obtained the health records of patients seeking gender affirming care from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

In June, patients of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s transgender clinic were alarmed to learn that their health records had been turned over to the state. The health system informed patients that it shared the records as part of a TennCare billing fraud investigation by the Tennessee attorney general’s office — but those records were only a small piece of the requests. VUMC had been handing over information since Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti signed the first civil investigative demand, similar to a subpoena, in November. Two more followed in March. The three CIDs requested a broad swath of information, including messages from a general LGBTQ health email account, employment records for the transgender health care program and the Trans Buddy mentorship program and names of anyone referred to the center, even if they did not receive services. Court records also show a demand for documents "which contain information relating to an insufficient mental health diagnosis for services related to transgender health and gender affirming therapy" in addition to patient medical records and billing information.

And here is the kicker about KY’s Daniel Cameron:

“The Biden Administration’s repeated attempts to seize power from the people and their elected representatives defies the Constitution and must be met with strength," Cameron said. "I am proud to defend Kentuckians’ right to govern themselves without unlawful interference from the federal government.” Kentucky is one of 16 states that now have a near-total ban on abortion since the Dobbs decision. The state has no law or regulation in place preventing residents from obtaining reproductive health care services in others states, including abortion. Asked if Cameron's office has sought or requested information on Kentuckians' reproductive health care from other states since the Dobbs decision last summer, his spokespersons did not immediately reply with an answer.

WHAT? This should have been a no brainer. But we have Cameron’s spokesperson not replying.

Alarm bells are going off in my head.

I certainly hope that Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear brings this up later this year. Despite KY banning abortions, Kentuckians voted NOT to have an anti-abortion added to the state constitution last year. And Beshear ran as someone who supports a woman’s right to an abortion. And he won back in 2019.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/18/2181841/-Republican-KY-AG-Cameron-MAY-Have-Tried-To-Obtain-The-Patient-Records-Of-Women-Who-Had-Abortions

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