Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a joint stipulation of dismissal without prejudice, seeking to dismiss all claims in a September 2024 complaint against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, and former Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Director Melanie Fontes Rainer. On November 24, 2025, the court granted Paxton’s request and dismissed the lawsuit.
The complaint was filed in response to the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Healthcare Privacy Final Rule issued by the Biden Administration and added to the Federal Register in April 2024. The complaint sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the enforcement of the rule by the HHS, and to vacate another final rule, the HIPAA Privacy Rule of 2000. AG Paxton alleged that the HHS had overstepped its authority when issuing both final rules.
The decision to dismiss the lawsuit was likely influenced by a ruling in a separate lawsuit, filed in Texas last year by Dr. Carmen Purl, who runs Dr. Purl’s Fast Care Walk-in Clinic in Dumas, Texas. The lawsuit, Carmen Purl, et al., v. United States Department of Health and Human Services et al, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, also in response to the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Healthcare Privacy Final Rule.
The reproductive healthcare final rule was issued by the Biden administration as part of its response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years had protected the right to abortion prior to the point of fetal viability. With Roe v. Wade overturned, the legality of abortion became a state rather than federal matter, and almost half of U.S. states subsequently passed laws banning or restricting abortions.
The final rule created a new subclass of protected health information, reproductive health information, restricting disclosures of that information to government authorities and law enforcement. The final rule effectively prevented states from obtaining reproductive health information to hold individuals and healthcare providers liable under state law for abortions obtained legally out of state.
Purl alleged that the final rule was arbitrary and capricious and exceeded the HHS’s statutory authority, claiming the final rule impaired the clinic’s ability to participate in public health investigations and comply with state law that requires suspected child abuse to be reported. The lawsuit was successful, with the court dismissing the defendants’ motion to dismiss and vacating most of the modifications to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which were deemed unlawful for distinguishing between different types of health information to accomplish political ends. The Notice of Privacy Practices requirements for healthcare providers covered by the Part 2 regulations relating to substance use disorder were not vacated. While the lawsuit originated in the state of Texas, the ruling had nationwide effect. The HHS chose not to appeal the decision.
The court’s decision to vacate the Reproductive Healthcare Privacy Final Rule achieved some of the main goals of AG Paxton’s complaint, which likely played a key role in the decision to seek dismissal of the complaint. Since the complaint was dismissed without prejudice, AG Paxton retains the right to refile the same complaint in the future, should he so wish.
The decision to dismiss the complaint is good news for Americans, as the HIPAA Privacy Rule ensures that their personally identifiable health information is protected and can only be used for reasons related to treatment, payment for healthcare, and healthcare operations without their express consent. The HIPAA Privacy Rule also gave patients rights over their health information, allowing them to obtain a copy of their health data, request errors be corrected, ask for restrictions on disclosures, and be provided with an accounting of disclosures of their PHI to learn who has been provided with their health information.
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