perfidy

The Justice Department "is dropping its demand, at least for now, that six Planned Parenthood clinics around the country produce medical records on abortions, officials said Tuesday." This according to the New York Times. Thank God.

In their zeal to prosecute offenders under the new Partial Birth Abortion law, the Justice Department has stated that patients now have "no reasonable expectation" that their medical records may remain private, and goen ahead with wide-ranging subpoenas of individual patient records. Excuse me, what the fuck? Didn't the "Patients' Bill of Rights" pass in 2000, and with it a law protecting the privacy of medical records? Part of the very fabric of the doctor-patient relationship is based on the absolute confidentiality of what goes on.

And now that it's politicially convenient, the Patients' Bill of Rights is no good? Look, this is crazy. There are still subpoenas outstanding elsewhere demanding individual patient records. The bitter, rancorous debate over abortion notwithstanding, this is just crazy and has to stop.

[wik] William Safire opines.

[alsø wik] Now I remember! I first saw this on Kathy Kinsley's site! Yesterday was a bad, bad day for my brain.