Missouri officials want to know if you’ve had an abortion
They’re trying to get Planned Parenthood to turn over names.
Click here for reuse options!State legislators there are threatening to arrest Mary Kogut, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, because she won’t turn over a list of names of women who got abortions to them. Kogut’s lawyers are citing federal law protecting patient privacy to keep this list out of the hands of Republican legislators.
To be more specific, a list of consent forms signed by abortion patients has been subpoenaed by the interim Missouri State Senate Committee on the Sanctity of Life. (Yes, that is their name. I preferred the original name, the State Senate Committee of People Who Are Definitely More Moral Than You Sluts.) It’s part of the ongoing witch hunt started when anti-choice activists released a series of hoax videos falsely accusing Planned Parenthood of coercing women into abortion so they could sell fetal tissue on the black market. A dozen similar investigations in other states turned up no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, which was entirely predictable, given the obvious lurid-Christian-right-urban-legend nature of the story the videos were pushing.
Copyright 2016 Liberaland
31 responses to Missouri officials want to know if you’ve had an abortion
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whatthe46 April 8th, 2016 at 09:38
this is going nowhere. they really want to throw the right to privacy out the window. I don’t think so. and it’s none of their damn business.
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 09:52
Kurt Schaefer can kiss my ass. The subpoena is overbroad on its face, it would require listing volunteers that washed test tubes, vendors that delivered supplies, etc… and they expect that these names will become public as they did in a previous hearing. Fuck him.
whatthe46 April 8th, 2016 at 09:58
why doesn’t a judge just throw this case out the damn window is beyond me.
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 10:30
It’s MO, the legislature can issue their own subpoenas and contempt charges. Judges and the court system are not in the loop, although I am guessing that PP can file some kind of injunction with an actual court, I have no idea how long that might take but I assume a lot.
MO has a Dem (DINO) Gov but a Republican super-majority.
mistlesuede April 8th, 2016 at 10:37
Arrrggh.
Dwendt44 April 8th, 2016 at 11:52
PP can ask for a court to quash a subpoena for a variety of reasons, and I hope they do just that.
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 12:26
Me too. They haven’t made publically stated they are doing this, and I am hoping the lack of information is just a legal strategy.
mistlesuede April 8th, 2016 at 10:33
Why is this not illegal? These are private medical records and should be protected by our laws. Next they will try to say that these women are terrorists and get Homeland Security or the FBI involved to get at this information.They will stop at nothing.
My blood pressure which was very good at the doctors on Tuesday (110/60) must be sky high right now.
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 10:58
Sounds outrageous, right? Senate/Legislative hearings are not subject to the same “rules” as the legal system. Especially when the most are on the ALEC mailing list already.
mistlesuede April 8th, 2016 at 11:14
OMG. This goes back to what I said previously on this subject. Democrats have got to get the sense of urgency to vote out and replace GOTP with Democratic governors and state house legislators. It may already be too late.
pinballsdoll April 8th, 2016 at 12:17
Don’t the HIPAA laws apply here?
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 12:25
You would think so but no – kind of like the NSA and metadata, the claim is that they are reviewing the totality, not individuals. However, in the very same breath they mention redacting certain names but the Sanctity committee wants to tell them which ones to redact – I am not entirely certain they even understand what they are asking for, although Schaefer does. He’s smart enough to win the AG spot this fall and evil enough to do whatever it takes.
bpollen April 8th, 2016 at 15:16
A state subpoena cannot compel someone to break federal law to comply. If the any of the data is to be redacted, it would need to be redacted by the provider, not by the recipient.
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 17:36
Exactly!
Mike April 8th, 2016 at 12:33
Yes, in fact there is specific language which forbids the transfer of data that may contain:
Individually identifiable health information
The individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
The provision of health care to the individual, or
The past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual,
…without the patients permission
But like Carla says below, I think they’re going for generic stuff without names…they can get that.
I still don’t trust it, it just doesn’t smell right…
pinballsdoll April 8th, 2016 at 12:39
I don’t trust it either
whatthe46 April 8th, 2016 at 12:47
HIPPA laws most certainly apply.
Christopher Smith April 8th, 2016 at 12:42
Yes. Let us hope that their overwhelming greed for fascism has invalidated their evil in this case.
Snick1946 April 8th, 2016 at 13:11
Who is Kurt Schaefer? Not mention that I can see in the article.
Carla Akins April 8th, 2016 at 14:57
Schaefer is a MO State Senator, and the head of the Sanctity of Life committee that issued the subpoena. He’s a charmer.
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/barbara-shelly/article31046568.html
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker April 8th, 2016 at 10:32
This is so they can punish women.
The Donald was absolutely right when he spilled the beans.
mistlesuede April 8th, 2016 at 10:35
He confirmed what all of us paying attention already knew! No wonder they are trying to stop his mouth. There isn’t a dimes worth of difference between what he said and what all of the GOP wants to do to women. They just don’t say it where it can be heard.
whatthe46 April 8th, 2016 at 11:18
they don’t verbally announce it out loud you’re absolutely right about that. but they are using something more powerful than their voices and that’s a pen, by continuously drafting laws that are specifically directed at women making it difficult for them in everyway they possibly can. and attacking PP is attacking women’s healthcare and they don’t give a damn.
Buford2k11 April 8th, 2016 at 10:42
the War on Women continues unabated in Missouri…I really am hating on the Republican Party again…yesterday, today and will again tomorrow…
DogsRgoodpeople April 8th, 2016 at 11:17
At the top of the list will be , t h e i r God. The number of spontaneous abortions , otherwise known miscarriages , in the U S alone , 3 million a year. Time for them to take their intelligent designer to court I think.
https://www.google.com/search?q=spontanious+abortion&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS586US586&oq=spontanious+abortion&aqs=chrome..69i57.13940j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Dwendt44 April 8th, 2016 at 11:49
That doesn’t count the very early ‘miscarriages’. Up to 80% of conceptions are flushed out naturally and the women may not even be aware of that happening.
Christopher Smith April 8th, 2016 at 12:35
This is beyond hyperfascist. amurrikkka 2.0
Jodie April 8th, 2016 at 14:11
Dear GOP,
Please stop trying to send us back several decades. Women are going to end up doing all kind of crazy things again to stop an unwanted pregnancy. That, or those with money will go out of the country and hope for the best.
Gina Bousquet April 8th, 2016 at 22:03
This is illegal!
whatthe46 April 8th, 2016 at 22:21
absolutely.
Gina Bousquet April 8th, 2016 at 22:30
The nuts disregard federal law…