TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jul 24, 2023

On Friday, Tennessee Attorney Jonathan Skrmetti released a statement intended to clarify his opposition to a proposed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ privacy rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Skrmetti recently joined with 18 other state attorneys general in opposing the rule and said that some commentators have equated this opposition to asserting a right to prosecute women who go out of state for abortions. “This is simply not true,” he said Friday. “Tennessee’s abortion law does not apply to women who seek abortions, I have no enforcement authority with respect to Tennessee’s abortion law, and I am the attorney general of Tennessee and not some other state.” He said he opposed the rule because it is “a hastily-assembled mess that is bad for Tennessee and bad for America.” Read the full statement.