Indiana limits abortion data for privacy under near-total ban, but some Republican candidates push back

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana allows so few abortions that health officials have stopped releasing individual reports to protect patients’ privacy — a move that some Republicans are now fighting to reverse.

Republicans, including prominent candidates for office this year, want access to reports detailing every abortion still performed in the state. Abortion rights advocates and some state officials warn that this would endanger the privacy of doctors and patients who can only perform abortions under strict circumstances.

The state prohibits abortion, except within limited time frames, in cases of rape, incest, lethal fetal anomaly and serious risks to the patient’s health. Like many states, Indiana has long collected data on abortions, but the Department of Health decided last year to keep individual reports from the public record and only release its regular summary data four times a year to make potential identification of those more difficult. patients.

Indiana law requires doctors to submit “terminated pregnancy reports” with demographic and medical history information to the health department. The reports do not name patients, but may list their ZIP code and county of residence, and are rarely released in the states that collect them, according to experts.

In the days following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, an individual record obtained by the Indianapolis Star through a public records request confirmed an abortion performed on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio.

The issue has gradually become a political football as Indiana’s competitive primary for governor approaches in early May.

In January, Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Attorney General Curtis Hill appealed to the health department and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to allow the release of individual reports. Republican lieutenant governor and gubernatorial candidate Suzanne Crouch promised in a March post to X to make the reports public if she is elected.

And on Thursday, Attorney General Todd Rokita, who is running for re-election, issued an advisory opinion arguing that the reports should be public record. The opinion does not change any practices, but was in response to an investigation by state Sen. Andy Zay, a candidate for Congress, Rokita’s office said.

Voters should ask the field of gubernatorial candidates to take a stand, Rokita said during a news conference Thursday.

After Rokita released his opinion, the health department said the reports are not public record and pointed to an informal opinion written by an open records officer appointed in December.

Rokita argued that the reports are not medical records and could show whether an abortion was performed legally. Without the reports, he said, there is “no effective way” to enforce the state’s near-total ban.

The Legislature is expected to act next year if the department doesn’t, Zay said Thursday.

“We can use them as tools to hold those on the periphery of abortion clinics and abortion doctors accountable,” Zay said of the reports.

The individual reports ask patients for information such as zip code, age, race, ethnicity, education, marital status, previous pregnancies, date of last menstrual period and father’s age, according to the most recent quarterly summary. Patients can refuse to answer questions, the department said.

Doctors report information about the type of procedure, the reason for the abortion, and an estimate of the length of the pregnancy. Individual reports also include the doctor’s name, service name, and date of abortion.

Indiana’s ban went into effect in August. From October to December, 46 reports of terminated pregnancies were filed with the health department, compared to 1,724 in the same period in 2022.

It’s not common for states to release individual reports on abortion, said Rachel Jones, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, a science-based research group that supports abortion rights.

Jones said seeking individual reports is an effort to intimidate health care providers and patients.

“There is no public health or even legal purpose for trying to enforce this,” Jones said.

Rokita denied that the small number of reports makes it easier to identify patients and said the health department may redact some information before making the reports public.

The attorney general has fought several legal battles focused on abortion. He gave a television interview criticizing an Indianapolis gynecologist who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old from Ohio. The Indiana Supreme Court concluded last year that some of Rokita’s statements violated rules of professional conduct for lawyers.

Rokita is weaponizing the reports, said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of the Planned Parenthood region that includes Indiana.

“Denying abortion as a health care treatment is an abuse of power, intended to stigmatize vital services for political gain at the expense of Hoosier access to essential health care – even now, when it is only accessible in the rarest of circumstances,” he said. Gibron in a statement. .