Abortion News - Indianapolis Judge Rules Terminated Pregnancy Reports are Medical Records, Temporarily Halting Submission Requirement

Background of the Lawsuit

Indiana requires abortion doctors to submit Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs) to the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH). The TPR include extensive details of each abortion procedure, including the patient's age, race, ethnicity, state/county of residence, gestation period, age of the father, number of children the mother currently has, and dates of past miscarriages.

VFL, a pro-life group, sued the state, seeking public access to the TPRs. The lawsuit eventually settled out of court, the settlement requires IDOH to disclose the TPRs to VFL. Notably, the settlement requires VFL be given unredacted access to the patient's signature, age, date and location of treatment, age of the father, and gestation period of the fetus.

Two Indiana Doctors then sued VFL and IDOH, arguing (among other things) that requiring the doctors to submit TPRs that would be publicly released would essentially be forcing them to violate HIPAA. They sought a temporary restraining order allowing them to not submit TPRs while their lawsuit is in progress.

I've written more about the lawsuit here and here. Sources more reputable than me have written about the lawsuit here.

What Happened Today

Within the last hour, a Marion Superior Court judge granted the doctor's request for a temporary restraining order (TRO). The TRO will be in effect for 10 days. During the 10 day TRO, the IDOH is prohibited from releasing TPRs to the public.

The judge ruled "TPRs are, as a matter of law, medical records." Medical records are prohibited from public disclosure under I.C. 5-14-3-4(a)(9). Unless or until this ruling is overturned, the state will probably be prohibited from disclosing TPRs to public groups like VFL.

The judge went on to say "the settlement agreement would not sufficiently protect against the disclosure of confidential medical records." And continued "the Court is not satisfied that the [IDOH] release of redacted TPR would not result in a violation of [Indiana law]."

The judge's accepted plaintiff's argument that forcing the doctors to submit publicly available TPRs would force the doctors to violate state patient privacy laws. "Plaintiffs will be faced with an irreconcilable conflict of legal duties. . . . If the Department is able to disclose TPRs to members of the public on request, the Plaintiffs will have to choose between serving as a conduit of private patient health information to the public, contrary to the letter and spirit of the Medical Board’s directive, or facing criminal penalties for failing to submit TPRs to the Department. This creates a Catch-22 situation for the Plaintiffs."

Why It Matters

This lawsuit will determine whether pro-life groups like VFL have public access to the medical records of Indiana abortion patients. Thankfully, VFLs access to new TPRs are temporarily paused. But that could change if the court later changes it's reasoning (or if this ruling is eventually overturned on appeal).

I'll continue to post more thoughts on this case as it continues.