Protection in eye of beholder. Courts send mixed messages about the sanctity of medical files in the face of federal subpoenas for patients' abortion records.

With three trials under way on lawsuits challenging the Partial Birth Abortion Act, hospitals have been dragged into a drama involving medical-record privacy. It's providing a lesson on how little protection HIPAA offers in court. "We sought to find a way to produce those records in a way that would not embarrass our patients," said a counsel for the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, left.