Attorney General Treg Taylor’s recent commentary in the ADN explaining his motivation for opposing the HIPAA privacy protections was colored with his snarky attempt at humor for a topic that is anything but humorous.
He knows that Alaska laws protect abortion. Breaching the privacy of patients in other states is not only out of his political reach, but it is a wrong-headed approach to politicize a medical issue that is not within his purview.
His decision to sign onto this issue as if he were representing Alaskans is overstepping his bounds. This is not about having access to medical records in criminal investigations. There are already means for law enforcement to obtain records.
There are nine duties and subsections in the statute describing Mr. Taylor’s position. In none of them is it mentioned that he can represent Alaskans in an effort to cause harm to the privacy of women in other states.
— Andrea Jacobson
Anchorage
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