Editorial Roundup: Nebraska

Lincoln Journal Star. July 29, 2023.

Editorial: Nebraska AG owes extra rationalization over stance on abolition well being privateness

Nebraska Legal professional Common Mike Hilgers has joined 18 different Republican attorneys normal seeking to block a proposed federal rule that might stop state officers from acquiring non-public well being details about residents who’ve abortions or obtain gender-affirming care in different states, the place the procedures are authorized.

The change to HIPAA affected person privateness guidelines, proposed in April by the Biden administration, would block states from accessing well being details about residents who obtained lawful abortions or gender-affirming care “for legal, civil or administrative investigations or proceedings.”

Nebraska, it seems, has no direct authorized curiosity within the federal rule change. On condition that HIPAA is a federal program, prohibiting states from receiving data is neither overreach nor a discount of states’ rights.

So Hilgers is, as he acknowledged in his assertion on opposing the change, injecting Nebraska into nationwide abortion politics by claiming that the Biden administration’s proposed rule “is predicated on the false premise that states wish to deal with pregnant girls as criminals and punish medical personnel who present lifesaving care.”

In actual fact, that’s precisely what lawmakers need in states reminiscent of Idaho, which have handed or are contemplating legal guidelines that limit out-of-state journey for abortions.

Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban doesn’t include such a provision, one more reason that the state has no direct curiosity within the rule change. However, as 9 state senators delineated in a letter to Hilgers, Nebraska “has an unlucky historical past of prosecuting girls and well being care suppliers for being pregnant outcomes” and pointed to a latest case in Norfolk during which a 19-year-old was sentenced to 90 days in jail for disposing of a fetus after an abortion.

That, rightfully, induced the senator signees, together with Lincoln’s Danielle Conrad, George Dungan and Jane Raybould, to ask Hilgers why he wants access to medical records from other states and if he plans to make use of these information, or flip them over to native authorities, to prosecute people who search abortions the place it’s authorized or those that help others in searching for care exterior Nebraska.

The proposed rule change additionally extends to people, together with minors, who search gender-affirming care, a few of which is banned in Nebraska, in different states, elevating the identical questions of prosecution for these people as properly.

Hilgers should instantly reply these queries, by first saying whether or not the state will use the data for any form of prosecution, then, if the reply is sure, why it’s essential to have entry to the data with out due strategy of a courtroom order or subpoena.

Whatever the solutions, nevertheless, Hilgers’ opposition to the proposed rule is regarding, if for no different cause than the truth that when given the selection between making private well being data kind of safe, he’s chosen much less.

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