US Justice Dept. Seeks Hundreds of Medical Records

[stevedeshazer]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed Planned Parenthood for the confidential medical records of hundreds of women as part of its defense against challenges to a federal law that bans a type of late-term abortion, the family planning organization said on Thursday.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said this month the records were needed to find out whether the procedure, called "partial birth abortion" by its critics, was medically necessary.

"We believe that this is a sweeping invasion of medical privacy. Ashcroft has subpoenaed hundreds of confidential medical records and we're taking every step within the law to resist this," said Elizabeth Toledo, a spokeswoman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Planned Parenthood said subpoenas had been served on Tuesday at six of its locations -- Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Washington, Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

more: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=4451148§ion=news

[truthisfreedom]

1. wheres Rx-ush Limpbutt when you need him?

[peterh]

25. I guess it’s no surprise on how Judges cast a different eye.....

on a rule of law….

The NY critter gives the benefit of the doubt to asscroft while the Chicago Judge does not…..now what part of “privacy” does the NY critter not get?!? Oh…silly me….it’s only applicable when it benefits a repub….kinda like Rush right now….

[sistersofmercy]

2. Here we go! n/t

[fearnobush]

3. Not to be Funny, this is actually really sad, but its looking like

the chopshops and coat hangers are right around the corner. Does anyone give a shit anymore!!!

[stevedeshazer]

4. I do!

And I think a lot of other Americans will, too.

[PaDUer]

21. How far back is he going

to go looking? Don't they rid reports after X amt of yrs? What's he going to do, throw these women in jail?!

[Athame]

29. Show you care! Get to Washington on April 25

http://www.marchforwomen.org /
About the March for Women's Lives

To demonstrate overwhelming majority support for a woman’s right to choose safe, legal abortion and birth control, the largest pro-choice majority in history will march on Washington on Sunday April 25, 2004.

For the first time ever this pro-choice march is a collaborative effort - seven leading national women’s rights groups have come together to organize this momentous event. The American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women's Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America are the principal organizers of the March for Women's Lives and have pooled efforts and resources to lay the groundwork.

Other progressive organizations have signed on as co-sponsors - offering everything from member participation to help spreading the word and help defraying costs. The march will begin at noon on the national mall, although participants may begin assembling on the mall, between the Smithsonian museums (between 3rd St. and 14th St.), as early as 10 a.m. After marching on Washington, a rally will be held from 1-4 p.m. on the National Mall. Special seating will be available for people with disabilities. The rally program will be signed for the hearing impaired. The route is wheelchair accessible and transportation will be provided for those who cannot negotiate the route.

Sign Up Now!

[sonias]

5. Boy how I hate that asswipe

A federal judge in New York said the information sought by the Justice Department could be turned over. But another federal judge in Chicago came to a different conclusion and ruled that would violate federal and state privacy laws.
(snip)

Keep your laws off my body you pervert.

Sonia

[yo-yo-ma]

6. since when are lawyers and bureaucrats the experts

the ones who determine "medically necessity"?
The American College of OB/Gyn, The Association of Reproductive Health Care Professionals - every women's health group I know of, all have issues statements to the effect of
1) the now legal entity called "partial birth abortion" is not a real medical procedure per se,
and
2) sometimes something sort of like what is described may be necessary but this is a private clinical decision made in a particular clinical context and not a political issue.

The reason for the subpoenas is intimidation of both patients and providers pure and simple. It will restrict access to legal abortions even further. And it will cost the clinics a sizable amount to comply.

A hostile takeover of reproductive rights and privacy.

[Occulus]

10. Could the proponents of all these recent anti-choice decisions, then,

be collectively sued or prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license? After all, they're the ones now determining the medical procedures involved.

DU law types: is this even a possible suit or prosecution? In what way, if so? I'm curious. After all, those laws apply to all of us who don't have a medical license....

[yo-yo-ma]

12. What an interesting idea

I'm no law type, I'm in medicine.
Unfortunately there are many non medical types making medical decisions - I am thinking of the whole concept of insurance companies "authorizing" medical care. Of course, this doesn't actually mean that as a physician you can't provide the care, it just means that the care won't be reimbursed for.

[Bandit]

17. Best damn health care in the world ~ You betcha

:crazy:

[Mobius]

7. too depressing for me to comment

just ABB

[JohnOneillsMemory]

19. I'll reply. Their war isn't against Osama, it's against Rule of Law.

And here's today's second obligatory recap of Dominionism as culture war against the US Constitution:

I've decided to post this synopsis in all my thread responses:


The whipping up of the old anti-semitic and anti-homosexual memes is cover for a very real and documented campaign to make this country a Hitlerian Theocracy fueled by fundamentalist passions called 'Dominionism.'
This is the religion-fueled fascism:
Supreme dictators smiting evildoers wrathfully with no legal restraints. The US Constitution (as people power) is being gutted and replaced with the Bible (as king power) so we will all suffer permanent war, not enjoy imminent peace.

'THE CHOSEN FEW' IS BEING MORPHED INTO 'THE MASTER RACE'
THE SAME WAY 'GET OSAMA' WAS MORPHED INTO 'GET SADDAM'! GET IT?

We are living in the closing minutes of a culture war that the American Taliban, called Dominionists, are winning. 'Might Makes Right' is WINNING over 'The Rule of Law. The US Constitution is being gutted and replaced with the Bible but we will all suffer permanent war, not enjoy imminent peace. Have you noticed the last three years?

Georgie's brain is much worse than you think and he's being used for terrible purposes. Here's a British clinical psychologist's researched analysis of the boy king. He interviewed Georgie's family, friends and such and determined that he was abused as a child and developed an 'authoritarian personality,' the root of fascism! Read it and weep for him and us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html
(So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?)-CLICK

And this personality is being exploited to further the creation of a Hitlerian Theocracy called ‘Dominionism’, which has been going on in this country for the last thirty years. Read it and wonder what the hell we're in for next now that Eugenics is domestic policy and Imperialism is foreign policy.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5160.shtml
(God Bless America, The Constitution is Dead)-CLICK

If you'd like to read the full speech of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia back in the dark ages of January 2002 when he said that 'democracy interferes with the Divine Right of Kings and he's doing something about it,' read this and wonder what century we're living in and just what that Constitution was for, anyway.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/scalia.htm
(God's Justice and Ours)-CLICK

How can they get away with it when everyone seems to be pissed off at Georgie and we're supposed to be able to vote the bastard out of our White House? By fixing the electronic voting machines for 'the House.' Read this and decide which country to escape to this fall when Georgie is reinstalled to finish the job he was sent to do-eliminate democracy totally, create a police state, and conquer the world.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
(Diebold, Electonic Voting, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)-CLICK

LATE BREAKING NEWS-FEB. 26 2004
Right now the Dominionists are introducing legislation to replace 'The People' as the authority in our democracy’s Constitution with ‘God’ in a bill called ‘The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004,’ exactly the opposite of what it really is. The legalities of the Christian Theocracy are being used to destroy our laws as if by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

This is not a test! It is absolutely real and happening right now while the media are busy covering gay marriage and Mel Gibson’s bloody crucifixion porn film, ‘The Passion of the Christ.’

“…on February 11 , 2004 Dominionist leaders in congress made their move; they introduced a bill in both houses called The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004. Among the sponsors of the bill are Rep. Robert Aderholt (Alabama), Rep. Michael Pence (Indiana), Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Sen. Zell Miller (Georgia), Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).

The House version is H.R. 3799 and the Senate version is S. 2082. The bill limits the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts to hear cases involving “expressions of religious faith by elected or appointed officials.”

Although the claim by its sponsors appears to be that the intention is to prevent the courts from hearing cases involving the Ten Commandments or a Nativity Scene in a public setting from being reviewed, the law is drawn broadly and expressly includes the acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law by an official in his capacity of executing his office.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0402/S00172.htm
(The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004)-CLICK

[Seldona]

26. Ack!

That is some scary stuff.

Going to pass those links along to everyone I can.

What is scary is that they have been prepping this sh*t since Robertson in the early 80's.

They have organization, many people in office, and a ton of funding.

Alot of us had better do more than wake up here.

This isn't wishful thinking. They are going to try, and have, to get this garbage passed as laws that we all have to live by.

Sheesh!

[Leilani]

8. This is really scary

I didn't really think it was possible in this country.

[jburton]

9. Remeber "Bush is a Moderate"

During 2000?

After 8 years of Clinton, too many folks were just lulled into complacency. You know "Bush wouldn't *dare* restrict abortion, it's already a decided issue" and all that BS.

This is going to wake a bunch of people up.

[WilliamPitt]

11. Erm

I think it was the guy in your avatar who said exactly that.

[notbush]

13. Let's have some consistency here

Flush Limbo's medical records are open to all....my girl friends medical records are a state secret.....
I hate to say it ...but in the instance of medical records, Rush is right.
You can't have it both ways, no matter how much you hate the person,medical records are between you and your doctor.
I think Ashcroft is probably trying to exploit the hatred of Limbo to make his opponents seem extreme.

[KayLaw]

18. I don't see it as the same

Assuming your girlfriend is not a criminal and the subject of a criminal investigation.

[havocmom]

20. Rush broke laws, his records = evidence. This is pure intimidation of

women and health care providers.

A religious hypocrite is using public office to let women know that they will have no right to expect privacy AND he is putting doctors on notice that anything they do can/will be second guessed by people without medical degrees.

Open this door and it can result in an inquisition based on religious doctrine rather than secular law and decent medical care. Where does it stop?

[dusty64]

14. I see the "justice" department

is still waging their holy war against the American People instead of fighting crimes and "terra". I just can't help to compare the silence against this American Taliban Attorney General with the shitstorm hurled at Janet Reno in the 90's it really IS unbelievable. I know most young women are NOT paying attention, I hope we will not all have to be hurled back to the Dark Ages by these extremists before they wake up.

[stevedeshazer]

15. You are so right

My daughter is 24, and had no clue this could happen, yet she's quite politically aware.

Medical privacy is not a given with John Ashcroft behind the so-called Justice Department.

[shrike]

16. motherf*****

We're sure to have another terror attack now. They only go after steroids, hookers and pregnant women.

[justjones]

22. Do individual women, to whom these medical records belong,

have any way to legally seal the records from view from anyone other than their doctor? The assumption is that this information is private, but are there additional measures an individual woman can make to ensure they remain private....or are medical records automatically the hospital's property?

Notice that Ashcroft says he will take "every precaution possible" and to "mask much of the identifying characteristics of the patients" and "to expunge the identifying names." This doesn't sound like a guarantee to me.

Shit, there's got to be a way that women who have ever been so much as treated at any of these facilities can go and pick up their records....

[saigon68]

23. Just Imagine, the Greasy, Slimy , Fat Fingered AssCrap looking at these.

He will probably take them in the stalls of the men's room at the Justice Department and masturbate over them.

The words Vagina and Uterus are all that he needs to see to obtain arousal.


What a pig.

[havocmom]

24. It is an intimidation tactic

just like protesters at Planned Parenthood who would harass women going in for medical care used to do. There were court orders stopping the harassment of clinic patients. They have to stay a certain distance from clinics. (Sadly some now use sniper rifles with scopes to express their pro-life opinions.)

We used to be on call with Planned Parenthood to literally line the boundaries of their property when they knew bus loads of fundies were gonna show up to harass people. The fundies took to bringing cameras and video camera and shove them in our faces while telling us they were putting our pictures up in their churches and newsletters. They were vile and hateful beyond description. They hated it that we would not run from their cameras and took to posing and flagging them down requesting photos.

It is all about intimidation. They hate us for our freedom.

[yellowcanine]

27. There has to be a legal way to stop that man.

Where are the liberterians? Why are they so silent on this? For that matter why are the Democrats so silent?

[saigon68]

28. Too busy waiting for their tax refund checks

Or to see the movie the passion---or whatever.</sad>