[Med-privacy] [healthprivacy-news] DOJ Backs Down from Demands for Women's Medical Records]

[pmarshall]

DOJ Backs Down from Demands for Women's Medical Records


In a surprising move yesterday, the Department of Justice voluntarily withdrew a subpoena for abortion records from New York-Presbyterian hospital, as reported by The New York Times.  

The subpoena was one of many the DOJ issued in defense of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which outlaws certain types of abortion procedures performed in the second trimester of pregnancy.  Several reproductive rights organizations and doctors filed lawsuits in New York, California, and Nebraska challenging the Act as unconstitutional on the grounds that it does not provide a safeguard to protect women's health.  

As the Health Privacy Project alerted you in February, the Department of Justice subpoenaed abortion records from hospitals across the country where the plaintiff doctors had practiced.  The plaintiffs in the lawsuits argued that the medical records were not relevant to the case, and charged that the subpoenas amounted to the harassment and intimidation of women and their doctors.  The subpoenas also raised the concern that government demands for private medical records will drive women away from critical heath services for fear that the information will be used against them.     

In each state (Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, California, and Michigan), the hospitals contested the subpoenas, claiming that they violate federal and state medical privacy laws and would dangerously interfere with the confidential doctor/patient relationship.  Federal judges in three states (Illinois, California, and Pennsylvania) agreed with the plaintiffs that the Justice Department's subpoenas were unjustified and too broad.  In Michigan, the judge only allowed the records to be disclosed if all patient identifying information was removed, but the University of Michigan hospital notified the court that it had no records that met the criteria of the government's request.  

In March, New York Southern District Court Judge Richard Conway Casey upheld the DOJ subpoena.  However, New York-Presbyterian hospital continued to fight the release of the medical records.  Just last week, the hospital was declared in contempt of court and fined $500 for not producing the records.  Only after this point, did the Justice Department drop its demand for the records.     

The Justice Department's move is unexpected and signals, as the plaintiffs had long asserted, that the records were not necessary to the government's case.