Crisis pregnancy center’s forms give rare insight into anti-abortion practices

The free organizations offer counseling while trying to dissuade women from having abortions. They promise to protect health data but aren’t bound by federal privacy law.

Oct. 13, 2024
by Abigail Brooks

A free family planning center in Twin Falls, Idaho, asks its visitors for sensitive, private information, including nonmedical questions about religion and financial status, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

While the Sage Women’s Center promises to protect the information of its clients, it isn’t bound by medical privacy laws and may be misleading women who are coping with unplanned pregnancies, consumer advocates say.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/crisis-pregnancy-centers-forms-privacy-abortion-rcna172566

U.S states are already collecting more abortion data. And HIPAA won’t always keep it private.

BY: KELCIE MOSELEY-MORRIS
JUNE 1, 2024

Years before the Dobbs decision that struck down U.S. constitutional abortion rights, providers like Dr. Kylie Cooper were already uncomfortable with some of the reporting requirements for abortion procedures in states where they practiced.

Cooper was a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for several years in Idaho before she reluctantly left the state in 2023 because of the near-total abortion ban that is now in place. But when abortion was still legal, she was required to fill out a form and submit it to the state with information about the patient and the procedure, including the physician’s name and when it occurred. While the law said that the information would be aggregated and could not identify individual patients, Cooper never felt sure about how it would be used or how secure the data would be kept.

Continued: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/06/01/states-are-already-collecting-more-abortion-data-and-hipaa-wont-always-keep-it-private/

USA – An overlooked consequence of the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering rulings: Stricter abortion laws

An overlooked consequence of the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering rulings: Stricter abortion laws

By Reis Thebault
Oct. 22, 2019

For the next two months, petitioners will swarm Michigan ahead of late-December deadlines. They’ll knock on doors, flock to fairs and hand out pamphlets after church. Every day will be valuable, and every signature will get them a little bit closer to their goal: making it harder for women to get abortions in their home state.

If the volunteer fleet is successful, Michigan will join the list of states that have tightened restrictions on abortion rights this year. But, unlike those other states, which have overwhelmingly conservative governments, Michigan could pass antiabortion laws without the governor’s approval and without the support of a majority of voters.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/22/an-overlooked-consequence-supreme-courts-gerrymandering-rulings-stricter-abortion-laws/

USA – Planned Parenthood ousts leader after less than a year

Planned Parenthood ousts leader after less than a year

By Lenny Bernstein, Ariana Eunjung Cha and Amy Goldstein
July 16, 2019

The president of Planned Parenthood was forced out of her job Tuesday in a dispute over her management style and the direction of the nation’s largest women’s reproductive rights organization amid growing political and legal challenges to abortion.

Planned Parenthood’s board met in emergency session for hours Tuesday and approved Leana Wen’s immediate departure just eight months after she took over the post. The terms had been negotiated over several weeks, said a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/head-of-planned-parenthood-forced-out-after-eight-months/2019/07/16/c726b078-a7d3-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html?utm_term=.59016a456b88&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1