By Brendan Pierson

Oct 21 (Reuters) - A Texas doctor on Monday sued the Biden administration in an effort to block a new rule aimed at strengthening privacy protections for women seeking abortions and for patients who receive gender transition treatments.

Carmen Purl, a family physician in Dumas, Texas, said in her lawsuit in Amarillo, Texas, federal court that the rule exceeds the government's legal authority and could prevent her from reporting possible abuse. She is represented by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has brought numerous lawsuits on behalf of abortion rights opponents.

The state of Texas has also brought a lawsuit challenging the rule.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services $(HHS)$, which passed the rule in April, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The rule prohibits healthcare providers and insurers from giving state law enforcement authorities information about reproductive healthcare that is legal under the circumstances in which it was provided. It was issued under the authority to protect patient privacy given to HHS by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Violators may be subject to criminal penalties including fines and prison time.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said in announcing the rule that no one should have their medical records "used against them, their doctor, or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care."

The measure came in response to efforts by authorities in some Republican-led states that ban abortion, including Texas, to restrict out-of-state travel for abortion. So far, no criminal prosecutions or civil judgments have resulted from those efforts.

Texas has also banned gender-affirming care, such as hormones and surgery, for transgender minors, and last week sued a doctor for violating the ban.

Purl said in her lawsuit that the rule could prevent her from reporting abuse of a patient being pressured into getting an abortion, or from reporting that a minor was scheduled for gender-affirming treatment in violating of state law.

By filing in Amarillo, Purl ensured that the lawsuit will be heard by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former Christian legal activist who last year suspended the approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in a ruling that was later reversed. That case was also brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Texas is one of more than 20 Republican-led states that have banned or restricted abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision eliminating the longstanding nationwide right to abortion.

The case is Purl v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 2:24-cv-00228.

For Purl: Natalie Thompson of Alliance Defending Freedom

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York)

((Brendan.Pierson@thomsonreuters.com; 332-219-1345 (desk); 646-306-0235 (cell);))