Indiana Doctors Sue to Protect Reports That Could ID Abortion Patients
"We are once again in court defending our patients and their right to privacy," the two doctors said.
Two Indiana OB-GYN physicians, Caitlin Bernard and Caroline Rouse, filed a lawsuit in Marion County Superior Court last week in an effort to halt the Indiana Department of Health from publicly releasing "terminated pregnancy reports," documents that physicians are required to submit in connection with every abortion performed in the state.
Specifically, the plaintiffs want the court to rule that the terminated pregnancy reports submitted to IDOH are exempt from disclosure under Indiana's Access to Public Records Act.
"We are once again in court defending our patients and their right to privacy," Bernard and Rouse said in a joint statement, according to The Hill.
"Everyone receiving medical care deserves to have their personal health decisions and pregnancy outcomes protected. There is no reason to release this sensitive information to the public. We will keep fighting to protect patients' privacy and the trust between doctors and patients," they wrote.
Bernard made headlines in 2022 after she performed an abortion for a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had been raped and shared that information with a reporter.
The terminated pregnancy reports don't include a patient's name, but they do include other information such as the patient's age, race, and the county where they live, as well as the name of the physicians performing the abortion.
In January 2024, following the state's imposition of a near-total abortion ban, IDOH decided it would no longer release individual terminated pregnancy reports, opting instead to release quarterly aggregated reports.
The number of abortions in the state dropped off sharply after the ban went into effect in August 2023, and "due to the small number and increased reporting requirements, the agency had concerns about violating patient confidentiality by releasing full individual records," according to The Indiana Capitol Chronicle. In particular, there was concern that there was enough information about patients that it would be possible to figure out their identity.
An anti-abortion group, Voices for Life, then sued the state seeking access to the individual reports. That case was dismissed by a Marion County judge in September 2024, and Voices of Life said it would appeal. But then in January 2025, Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun issued an executive order declaring the reports to be public.
IDOH entered into a settlement with Voices of Life to release the reports on February 3. Under the terms of the settlement, IDOH agrees to make redactions to the reports that "adequately protect personal health identifiers and that do not inhibit examination of the terminated pregnancy reports to determine whether a physician performed an abortion in accordance with Indiana law," per the Capitol Chronicle.
The court has set a hearing to consider the latest suit brought by Bernard and Rouse on Tuesday, according to the Capital Chronicle.
