Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit civil liberties organization, wrote to Attorneys General in Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, and Texas to ask for an investigation of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in their states concerning probable privacy violations and deceitful business tactics.
There are approximately 2,750 CPCs in America, most of which are associated with at least one of these three organizations: the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, Heartbeat International, and Care Net. CPCs typically provide counseling and pregnancy testing services, with a few also offering limited healthcare services; nonetheless, many CPCs aren’t registered medical clinics. CPCs are frequently associated with religious institutions and hold a strong anti-abortion position so do not provide reproductive medical care like abortions or, sometimes, birth control. As per EFF, CPCs earned $1.4 billion in 2022, which includes sizeable government and state funds.
The EFF letters were made after researchers at Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization, filed complaints with State Attorneys General in Idaho, Washington, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania in 2024. The researchers likewise requested the State Attorney General to look at CPCs for obscuring patient data security policies under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Under HIPAA, healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, including business associates of those entities, are covered. The Campaign for Accountability claimed several CPCs’ client intake processes and websites use language that suggests any health data obtained is secured by HIPAA. The CPCs that are accredited medical clinics are Covered Entities, but the other CPCs are not.
The Campaign for Accountability and EFF assert a probable breach of privacy and consumer rights because other centers could access the data collected from people getting CPC’s services through their affiliated sites without proper protection of privacy or anonymity.
In December 2024, the Campaign for Accountability sent a letter to the Louisiana Attorney General asking for an investigation of The Unexpected Pregnancy Center, a CPC in Louisiana. This CPC claimed its clients’ personal information was secured under HIPAA even if that was not so. The center is associated with Heartbeat International, which exposed the names of no less than 13 Unexpected Pregnancy Center clients online in a video.
The Campaign for Accountability mentioned that The Unexpected Pregnancy Center website published a Notice of Privacy Practices in compliance with HIPAA requirements. The notice informed clients that in case they think their information has been misused, a complaint can be filed with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). After discovering the public exposure of patients’ names and other healthcare data, the Campaign for Accountability submitted a complaint to OCR. OCR stated that it didn’t have authority over The Unexpected Pregnancy Center or Heartbeat International because they are not HIPAA-covered entities.
Campaign for Accountability stated that consumers expect that if a company says their data is secured by HIPAA, it’s legitimate. Louisiana legislation forbids such misleading conduct and the Attorney General’s office should impose the law.
EFF mentioned that the concern about CPC privacy practices is not limited to the five states called by Campaign for Accountability, therefore EFF also wrote to the particular State Attorneys General in Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, and Texas. Every individual has the right to privacy and deserve transparency.
The nonprofit organization Texas Alliance for Life is determined to protect human life from pregnancy to death. It supports EFF in its interest to investigate CPCs and check misleading business practices associated with HIPAA compliance. Pregnancy centers need to follow strict client confidentiality guidelines, which include HIPAA certification, even in instances where there is no legal requirement. Women have access to the complete selection of resources and assistance they need at the time of pregnancy and after.
