Purl v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

AMARILLO, Texas – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Monday to challenge the Biden-Harris administration’s recent regulations that illegally restrict how doctors can protect patients from the harms of abortion and “gender transition.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ changes to rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act add unprecedented restrictions on doctors’ ability to report abuse and states’ ability to protect children from abortion and gender transition drugs and surgeries. Without authority from the HIPAA statute, the new rule redefines “person” and “public health” to exclude unborn children, and limits how doctors and law enforcement can protect patients from abuse when it involves so-called reproductive care, meaning abortion, that the Biden-Harris administration favors.

“Doctors and states should be able to protect patients from abuse,” said ADF Senior Counsel Julie Marie Blake. “The Biden-Harris administration’s unlawful rule weaponizes laws about privacy that have nothing to do with abortion or gender identity. The rule undermines state laws that protect mothers and unborn children from the harms of abortion, and vulnerable children from dangerous and sterilizing procedures like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and life-altering surgeries. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs resoundingly affirmed that states—not unelected bureaucrats—should set abortion policy and be free to protect unborn life.”

In the lawsuit Purl v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Carmen Purl, M.D., a family physician and owner of Dr. Purl’s Fast Care Walk In Clinic in Dumas, Texas, wants to protect her patients by reporting suspected abuse, and to safeguard the health and safety of mothers and children.

The recent HIPAA rule purports to limit the circumstances when HIPAA-covered entities—like Purl and her clinic—can share information with law enforcement and child-welfare agencies in cases of suspected abuse or to protect public health. As ADF attorneys explain in the lawsuit, this is unlawful because the HIPAA statute explicitly preserves state investigative authority and has no language allowing federal bureaucrats to use privacy rules to promote radical policies on abortion or gender ideology.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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