On June 18, 2025, Judge Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated key provisions of HHS’s HIPAA Privacy Rule that had imposed new federal protections for reproductive health care information. This means that HIPAA-covered entities must immediately stop requiring a HIPAA-compliant Attestation from requestors seeking PHI that includes (or is likely to include) reproductive health information. Covered entities must now also reevaluate their current processes for handling requests for PHI related to reproductive health information. However, if you operate in a state that has its own state-level reproductive privacy or provider shield law, those state protections still apply and may even require similar or stronger privacy safeguards.
