“We’re involved that the shortage of transparency and lack of safety will permit the information Heartbeat Worldwide and its associates accumulate to ‘be utilized in pregnancy- and abortion-related prosecutions.’”
Textual content of Letter (PDF)
Washington (September 20, 2022) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) joined 5 of his colleagues led by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in sending a letter to Heartbeat Worldwide, an anti-abortion group that helps hundreds of disaster being pregnant facilities (CPCs) throughout the nation, calling on the group to reply a sequence of questions on its assortment and use of ladies’s private knowledge, together with delicate well being care info.
“Heartbeat Worldwide – which is explicitly against abortion rights – seems to be able to gather a big quantity of private info from ladies about their pregnancies and potential plans for managing their care, however it’s not below any authorized obligation to keep up the confidentiality of this info, or preserve it out of the fingers of abortion bounty hunters,” wrote the lawmakers.
Heartbeat Worldwide’s imaginative and prescient “is to make abortion undesirable right now and unthinkable for future generations.” To perform that objective, the group has invested in an information assortment system to maintain observe of private info, together with people’ names, addresses, cellphone numbers, and reproductive well being info. CPCs and comparable organizations should not reputable medical services and due to this fact should not topic to the Well being Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), elevating important privateness issues.
“We worry that, within the wake of the Supreme Courtroom’s Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group determination that stripped ladies of their proper to an abortion, this info could also be used to place ladies’s well being and freedom to decide on in jeopardy, and to place them and their well being care suppliers prone to felony penalties,” wrote the lawmakers.
Following the Supreme Courtroom’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade and Senator Graham’s (R-S.C.) introduction of a nationwide abortion ban, the lawmakers expressed concern concerning the delicate well being info Heartbeat Worldwide and its affiliate CPCs accumulate from ladies who consider they’ll search reputable abortion and reproductive well being care providers at these services. They’re calling on Heartbeat Worldwide to reply plenty of questions concerning the knowledge and data they accumulate by October 3, 2022.
Along with Senator Markey, the letter was additionally signed by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
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