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Email me: williaty

Tue, 17 Feb 2004

All Your Uterus Are Belong to Ashcroft    -Tuesday, February 17, 2004   -9:09 pm-

Every time I think I've head the most astounding thing yet from our Federal Government, they do something I couldn't even have imagined. A while back, the Fed passed The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which has the interesting effect of making it a Federal offense for a doctor to perform a partial-birth abortion when it's the only way to save a woman's life. There's been a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the law, and a set of doctors is suing the Fed to have the law revoked. The Justice Department, at the direction of the much reviled John Ashcroft, has subpoenaed the medical records of hundreds of people who have had such abortions to determine whether the procedures were medically necessary "or if it was just the doctor's preference to perform the procedure." Obviously, this is a violation of the Doctor-Patient Privilege. Ashcroft had this to say in reply:

"There is no federal common law protecting physician-patient privilege. In light of modern medical practice... individuals no longer possess a reasonable expectation that their histories will remain completely confidential."

Everyone got their torches and pitchforks ready?

writebacks...

Fiona wrote

Yeah, why does the justice department care if someone had a procedure when it is legal? Furthermore, the justice department is not a body necessarily allowed to enforce malpractice. That's the national board of medical examiners and the state licensure boards. And hello? Why are we dealing with strict HIPAA regulations if the government is going to undermine all the privacy the act guarantees? Screw Ashcroft and all the rest of his cronies. I will be writing my congressmen about this.

red wrote

yeeeep. got my pitchfork right here. but uh, will you wait for me to smoke a bowl, spit on the flag, kick a cop in the testes, steal candy from a small child, and rob a bank before we go?

Darkon wrote

Ahh.. yeah I think there is a law for that. It's called HIPAA. I was listening to a thing on this on NPR a few days ago. The point was that the court wanted to see some documentation showing cases where the procedure was nessessary. I don't think the doctors should be required to comply, however it could help back thier case.

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