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J.D. VANCE WANTS POLICE TO TRACK PEOPLE WHO HAVE ABORTIONS
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Veronica Riccobene; Helen Santoro; Joel Warner
July 15, 2024
The Lever
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_ Trump’s vice presidential pick pressured regulators to let police
access the records of people who cross state lines for abortions. _
Senator J.D. Vance speaks during the 2023 Ohio March for Life in
Columbus, Ohio. , AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Sen. J.D. Vance [[link removed]] (R-Ohio),
Donald Trump [[link removed]]’s pick
for vice presidential nominee, pressured federal regulators last June
to kill a privacy rule that prevents police from accessing the medical
records of people seeking reproductive services, according to
documents reviewed by _The Lever_. The rule 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.
If the Trump-Vance ticket wins this year’s presidential election,
the new administration could rescind the rule protecting abortion
records from police investigation.
If the Trump-Vance ticket wins this year’s presidential election,
the new administration could rescind the rule protecting abortion
records from police investigation.
Project 2025, the right-wing manifesto
[[link removed]] to
reshape the federal government if Trump is reelected, proposes
sweeping new surveillance of people seeking abortions.
“Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion
tourism, [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] should use
every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that
every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its
borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the
mother’s state of residence, and by what method,” notes the plan.
The Biden administration [[link removed]]
proposed the expanded privacy rule
[[link removed]]
in April 2023 in the wake of the Supreme Court’s _Dobbs v. Jackson_
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decision, which overturned _Roe v. Wade _and ended federal abortion
protections. The proposed rule expanded upon the long-established
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s Privacy Rule
[[link removed]],
which requires appropriate safeguards to protect individuals’ health
information.
While these privacy laws do not usually apply in the case of a
criminal investigation, the proposed rule prohibited health officials
from divulging records related to reproductive health care —
including for fertility issues, contraception, and miscarriages —
even if requested by law enforcement.
The following month, Vance and 28 other conservative lawmakers sent a
letter
[[link removed]]
to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra demanding the
department withdraw the draft rule. They argued that the Biden
administration had overstepped its constitutional bounds and
unlawfully infringed on congressional power.
“Abortion is not health care,” they wrote. “It is a brutal act
that destroys the life of an unborn child and hurts women.”
A Vance spokesperson did not respond when asked whether Trump would
rescind the rule if he’s reelected.
Supporters of the rule said expanding the privacy laws was a welcome
and necessary step in protecting those who seek or perform legal
abortions from being prosecuted in outside jurisdictions. Planned
Parenthood wrote
[[link removed]] that
tightening medical privacy rules was an “essential element” to
securing patient data and supporting patient confidentiality in the
health care system.
Similarly, advocacy groups say that securing patients’ privacy is
paramount, given the recent gutting of abortion rights at the federal
level.
“Since the _Dobbs _decision, the specter of criminalization has
increased significantly, for both patients and providers,” wrote
[[link removed]] a group
of 125 reproductive health and justice organizations in response to
the proposed rule. “People must feel — and actually be — safe
while accessing health care, but the overturning of_ Roe v. Wade_
further erodes this very necessary trust between patients and
providers.”
Research
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on people targeted for allegedly ending or helping to end a pregnancy
found that they were most often reported to law enforcement by health
care professionals. Once police got involved, the vast majority of
cases led to arrests.
Researchers also argue
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that criminalizing abortion will increase preexisting racial
disparities in incarceration rates. While more than 42 percent
[[link removed]]
of women who get abortions in the U.S. are Black, more than half
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of all Black women aged 15 to 49 years old live in states with
abortion restrictions or plans to implement them.
Meanwhile, the number of people nationwide who are traveling across
state lines for abortion care is rising: Nearly one in five abortion
patients traveled out of state to obtain this care in the first six
months of 2023, compared with one in 10 abortion patients during the
same period in 2020
[[link removed]].
This past April, the Biden administration issued the final rule
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protecting the medical records of people seeking abortion services,
and it went into effect last month.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is providing stronger protections
to people seeking lawful reproductive health care regardless of
whether the care is in their home state or if they must cross state
lines to get it,” said Becerra
[[link removed]]
at the time of the rules’ implementation. “With reproductive
health under attack by some lawmakers, these protections are more
important than ever.”
While he once compared abortion to slavery
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Vance has recently tried to soften his public position
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on abortion — mirroring Trump and the Republican Party
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as they work to address the fact that many Americans, even in red
states
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oppose
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excessively restrictive abortion laws.
Earlier this month, Vance said on NBC’s _Meet The Press_ that he
agreed with a recent Supreme Court ruling
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protecting people’s access to the abortion drug mifepristone. And in
June, _The Daily Mail _reported
[[link removed]]
that someone with the username “Chuengsteven” — an apparent
reference to chief Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung — slightly
edited Vance’s Wikipedia page to say he believes “abortion laws
should be set by states,” echoing Trump’s position.
Still, Vance has worked hard to undermine efforts to secure abortion
access even in states where it’s legal. Last December, he co-signed
[[link removed]]
a letter pressuring the Department of Health and Human Services to
continue diverting federal funds meant
[[link removed]]
for low-income mothers to crisis pregnancy centers, which researchers
say [[link removed](19)30413-6/fulltext]
often fail to adhere to medical and ethical standards to dissuade
people from getting abortions.
Immediately after Trump named Vance as his running mate on Monday,
President Joe Biden’s campaign began targeting Vance’s
anti-abortion positions.
“A Trump-Vance administration will jeopardize reproductive freedom
in all 50 states,” said
[[link removed]]
Mini Timmaraju, president of the lobbying group Reproductive Freedom
for All, during a Biden campaign call.
===
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* J.D. Vance; Abortion Rights; Trump's Vice President;
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