I never thought about the situation like this but I had people point out that my rights may have been violated and I’m not sure what steps to take next and I’ll try to explain the situation the best I can.
I am 24 and live in the USA and I’m on birth control but it failed. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until I went into the hospital for something unrelated and found out I needed surgery for something and that I was pregnant on the same day. I quickly looked into abortion options but haven’t been able to go through with it because I haven’t had the funding but I’m trying to figure that out now so I can get the surgery and be healthy again.
I went for my surgical consultation and the doctor said he would feel much safer waiting for me to terminate before performing the surgery but I would have to schedule the surgery through his assistant A. A called me shortly after the surgical consultation and pressured me the entire phone call to keep the baby but when I told her I was planning on going through with the termination wouldn’t schedule my appointment until I had gone through with it. So I’ve had to put the appointment off and wait until then, which is fine, but my parents are in on why I need the surgery and I’ve had to come up with excuses as to why I can’t schedule it yet because I don’t want them to try to pressure me to not terminate.
Fast forward to last tuesday and I get a text from my dad that says something to the effect of ‘we know why you haven’t scheduled the appointment and we’re very disappointed in you.’ It turns out that they called the office and the assistant disclosed my pregnancy to my parents and it’s causing me a great deal of emotional turmoil because my parents have been acting super weird around me and now I’m doubly stressed about the situation. I never gave her or anyone else to disclose my medical status to anyone and I feel like my rights as a patient have been violated.
I guess my questions would be: Do I have grounds for legal recourse, what would my next steps be and what should I do from here.
Edit: fixed a word bc I don’t proofread
Edit edit; thank you so much for everyone’s kind words, this has helped me immensely and I appreciate all of the advice I’ve gotten and am continuing to get. I am so grateful that I have been met with nothing but kind words and thoughts,
jitterscaffeine on May 16th, 2019 at 07:05 UTC »
Something similar happened to a friend of mine. She was secretly getting the Essure permanent birth control put in because she didn't want her family to get all weird about her not wanting kids. But a few days after her procedure, the hospital called her mom to confirm insurance details, despite not being on her mom's insurance and not having listed her mom as a medical contact.
Suicidalsidekick on May 16th, 2019 at 05:43 UTC »
The scheduler had better get fired. Even if LAOP had listed her father as an emergency contact, that’s an EMERGENCY contact.
HIPAA does allow providers to release information to family/friends without the patient’s consent, as long as the information is relevant to the person’s involvement in the patient’s care and the provider can reasonably determine that disclosure is in the patient’s best interests. No reasonable person would look at this scenario and think “yes, the adult, independent patient’s pregnancy and intent to terminate is relevant to her parents’ role in her care and it’s totally in her best interests to give her parents the news”.
It would have been inappropriate for the scheduler to say the surgery was postponed due to a UTI that had to be treated first. A topic as sensitive and personal as pregnancy needs to be handled with care. Although obviously the scheduler knew what she was doing, it wasn’t an honest mistake.
Fingers crossed LAOP updates!
Prof_Lava-Hot on May 16th, 2019 at 03:49 UTC »
Good. I saw their post over on CF. Glad they're moving forward legally.