A state court in Indiana has blocked the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) from releasing sensitive information about abortion patients’ demographics, medical history, and medical treatment.
The ruling is in the case of a post-settlement lawsuit filed by doctors Caitlin Bernard and Caroline Rouse, who sued earlier this month to block the release of health care records of terminated pregnancies... Continue reading here ▶
Bernard is the physician who told press in 2022 that she had performed a legal abortion in Indiana on a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim who had traveled to Indiana to have the procedure. Bernard sued Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita for defamation after Rokita incorrectly claimed on Fox News — and later in an official statement — that Bernard had violated state privacy laws by disclosing the abortion.
Rokita called Bernard an “abortion activist acting as a doctor — with a history of failing to report,” and unsuccessfully attempted to strip her of her medical license. Rokita’s false statements were later found to constitute attorney misconduct on the attorney general’s part.
In June 2024, Bernard and Rouse intervened in a lawsuit filed by an anti-abortion organization against the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) seeking to compel the health the department to turn over all Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs) for the 45 people who were able to access legal abortion care after Indiana’s abortion ban took effect in August of 2023 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion. The physicians argued in their motion that requiring the submission of reports for these abortions along with detailed information about patients’ demographics and medical history would allow state agencies to ascertain the identities of individual patients. Rokita has advocated for public access to abortion patients’ personal health information.
The Medical Licensing Board of Indiana previously ruled that disclosing even a subset of the information contained in a TPR would violate HIPAA and state law protections for patient privacy.
In a seven-page order issued Monday, Marion County Superior Court Judge James A. Joven granted a temporary restraining order in the doctors’ favor blocking the release of the health information.
“A TPR is created by a medical provider as the consequence of a medical service, and it contains highly sensitive information about a patient’s demographics, medical history, and medical care that was obtained by the provider while treating the patient,” wrote Joven.
The judge continued, explaining that without court intervention, the physician plaintiffs would face “an irreconcilable conflict of legal duties,” because the medical board has previously ruled that disclosing patient medical information is grounds for professional discipline.
If the health department discloses TPRs, then the doctors would face a choice between “serving as a conduit of private patient health information to the public” — thereby violating the “letter and spirit” of the medical board — or facing criminal penalties for not submitting the TPRs to the IDOH, the judge explained.
“This creates a Catch-22 situation for the Plaintiffs,” said Joven.
The court’s temporary restraining order will be in effect for 10 days
“We are grateful to see that, for now, our patients’ privacy is protected,” said Drs. Bernard and Rouse in a joint statement. “We hope that the court will continue to prevent the unnecessary release of people’s personal health information, which puts both physicians and patients in jeopardy for simply providing and receiving needed healthcare.”
“The court’s ruling will temporarily prevent the Department of Health from releasing abortion patients’ personal health information to the public,” said Stephanie Toti, Executive Director of the Lawyering Project, the advocacy group that represents Bernard and Rouse. “We will continue working to safeguard patient privacy and prevent the mishandling of sensitive health data by government agencies.”
Rokita’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.