Recognizing the importance of reproductive health data privacy for Illinois residents, State Senator Celina Villanueva advanced a measure to keep reproductive data out of the wrong hands. A health information exchange is used to electronically transfer patient medical data, for the use of maintaining medical records or to share among providers, to improve diagnostic efficiency and the overall quality of patient care. To keep abortion records safe, Villanueva’s measure, the Reproductive Health Records Privacy Act, would require health information exchanges to:

• Limit user access to systems containing abortion-related medical information

• Refrain from sharing data across state lines, unless the reason for the disclosure is for technical support, quality assurance or billing purposes, or the patient consents to sharing their data

• Disable access to segregated information for out-of-state entities.

House Bill 5295 passed the Senate Saturday and heads to the House for concurrence.