Letter to John Ashcroft, U.S. Department of Justice

February 23, 2004

The Honorable John Ashcroft
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Ashcroft:

We are outraged by your department's demand that hospitals in several cities turn over hundreds of private medical records of women who have been under the care of certain physicians.

Enforcement of these subpoenas will reveal the private medical information of countless women, violating their right to privacy that is guaranteed in the Constitution. We are not aware of a single other instance of the government launching such a broad and invasive review into women's personal, private medical records.

Critical to a woman's decision to seek health care of all kinds, and reproductive health in particular, is the belief that the information related to their care will be kept confidential. Allowing the Justice Department to rummage through medical records will have a chilling effect on women seeking health care of all kinds. In our view, this represents an infringement upon the privacy between doctor and patient.

We urge you to immediately end these "invasion of privacy" subpoenas. Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.

We await your immediate response.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

Patty Murray
United States Senator

Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

Hillary Clinton
United States Senator

Frank Lautenberg
United States Senator

Jon Corzine
United States Senator

Ron Wyden
United States Senator