J.D. Vance on Abortion Privacy

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Reporting by The Lever found that Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s pick for vice presidential nominee, signed onto a letter pressuring federal regulators to “kill a privacy rule that prevents police from accessing the medical records of people seeking reproductive services.” 

The rule––the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy––was issued by the Biden administration in April 2024 and was designed “to prevent state and local police in anti-abortion states from using private records to hunt down and prosecute people who cross state lines in search of abortion services.” Experts fear that a Trump-Vance administration would succeed in rescinding the privacy rule.

HELEN SANTORO; hsantoro@levernews.com 
    Santoro is a reporter for The Lever focused on health care. 

Santoro told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “J.D. Vance is well-known for his work prior [to becoming a senator] as an author. But in light of Trump picking Vance as his vice presidential nominee, it’s important to look into these figures and their backgrounds across party lines.” This reporting may not surprise readers “who know about Vance’s views. But it’s good to expose the fact that he was on this letter that was designed to allow authorities to hunt down and prosecute individuals who cross state lines for abortion services.”

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires medical professions to “safeguard patient health information,” Santoro noted. “HIPAA is really important in terms of protecting medical information. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration expanded the HIPAA rule to further protect those seeking abortion and other reproductive services. In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, lawmakers including J.D. Vance wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services rejecting the ruling [on HIPAA], urging them to withdraw it, and calling [abortion] a brutal act that destroys the life of an unborn child.” The rejection of the HIPAA expansion “didn’t end up happening. But it was a clear attempt [by Vance and other Republican lawmakers] to further limit abortion access in this country.

“It isn’t surprising that [Vance] signed onto the letter. We’ve heard the ‘abortion is not healthcare’ argument before. Along with exposing [Vance’s] beliefs and potential policies, it’s important to remember the research on this: that 42 percent of women who get abortions in the U.S. are black, that the number of people traveling across state lines are rising because of strict anti-abortion laws. This is a real issue affecting people every day. 

“J.D. Vance opposes abortion rights, even in cases of incest and rape. Given Trump’s track record of going along with these far-right abortion pushes, it will be interesting to see what happens as this campaign moves forward and if Trump is reelected. The GOP seems to have stepped back somewhat from its [most hardline] positions on abortion.”