Privacy concerns arise as state attorneys general seek access to out-of-state medical records

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September 25th, 2023

From left to right: Jen Slipakoff, a parent of a transgender child and member of the Human Rights Campaign National Board of Governors, and Chanel Haley, a transwoman and the director of Education & Community Engagement at Georgia Equality and Allison Coffman, the executive director at Amplify Georgia Collaborative, discuss the privacy concerns they have for people seeking abortions and transgender care. This is all following a recent letter by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and 18 other state attorneys general opposing a proposed Biden administration rule that would keep access to a patients’ out-of-state medical records private. (Photo credit: LaShawn Hudson/WABE)

A Georgia law banning abortion roughly at six weeks of pregnancy was put into place earlier in the year. Georgia’s law also prohibits gender-affirming surgery and hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors.

Amid the enforcement of these new legal barriers, many people are traveling across state lines seeking medical care.

With the rise of patients seeking treatment in other states, the Biden Administration proposed a rule that would keep a patient’s out-of-state medical records private. This proposal has been met with opposition from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and 18 other state attorneys general. In June, they signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, saying the rule would prevent law enforcement from protecting women who become crime victims.

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