Section § 164.535Severability
If any provision of the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy is held to be invalid or unenforceable facially, or as applied to any person, plaintiff, or circumstance, it shall be construed to give maximum effect to the provision permitted by law, unless such holding shall be one of utter invalidity or unenforceability, in which case the provision shall be severable from this part and shall not affect the remainder thereof or the application of the provision to other persons not similarly situated or to other dissimilar circumstances.
HIPAA, the United States rules protecting health information, § 164.535
Purl v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (N.D. Tex., 18 June 2025) vacated the 2024 reproductive health care amendments to the Privacy Rule nationwide, and the appeal was dismissed in September 2025. The eCFR still prints the text, so it is shown here as published, but it is not in force. This severability section was added by that rule and falls with it.
Text: 45 CFR Part 164, from the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) as it stood on 6 October 2026.