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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 17, 2022 02:45 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Amanda M. Cappelletti |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Protecting Pregnant Person Privacy |
| While health care providers in the U.S. are subject to information disclosure provisions under HIPAA, crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which typically do not provide any health care services, are not required to provide any similar privacy protections. A recent investigation shows that umbrella organizations use CPCs to collect and store extensive personal client data to essentially create “digital dossiers” to surveil and attempt to influence every person who interacts with a CPC. This information includes everything from demographic data to sexual and medical histories to ultrasound photos. A recent decision by the Office of Open Records uncovered that CPCs sent records that included the services people received to Pennsylvania’s publicly funded CPC network. On its own this is a dangerous invasion of privacy but considering recent movement to deputize private citizens into vigilantes to regulate reproductive health, the threat is becoming even more imminent. For this reason, I am introducing legislation that would put safety parameters around crisis pregnancy centers data collection and prohibit them from sharing personal information without written permission of the individual. Please join me in protecting our citizens’ confidential information. |
Introduced as SB1217