Indiana Court Blocks Release of Abortion Patients’ Health Information

Ruling in Response to Lawsuit Filed by OB-GYNs

02.20.25 – (PRESS RELEASE) Yesterday, the Marion County Superior Court issued a ruling blocking the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) from releasing sensitive information about abortion patients’ demographics, medical history, and medical treatment. 

The ruling comes after two Indiana OB-GYNS—Dr. Caitlin Bernard and Dr. Caroline Rouse— filed a lawsuit earlier this month and asked the court to enter a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the release of the health information.           

The current lawsuit followed a settlement agreement between IDOH and an anti-abortion organization—brokered by the Indiana Attorney General’s office—under which IDOH agreed to treat terminated pregnancy reports (TPRs) as public records and release them in response to public records requests.  TPRs – which physicians are required to submit for every abortion they provide in Indiana – include 31 data points, including the patient’s age, county and state of residence, marital status, race, and ethnicity, as well as details about the patient’s medical history and the circumstances of their abortion.   

IDOH and Indiana’s Public Access Counselor previously concluded that such data could be reverse engineered to identify individual patients.  Further, 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.  The Indiana Attorney General, however, has advocated for public access to abortion patients’ personal health information to empower anti-abortion organizations to police hospitals’ compliance with Indiana’s abortion laws.   

“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.” 

Since Indiana’s strict abortion ban took effect in August 2023, few pregnant people have been able to obtain abortion care in the state, thus raising the risk that TPRs could be used to identify patients.  Indeed, only 113 people were able to access legal abortion care in Indiana during the first three quarters of 2024.  IDOH is required to publish quarterly reports containing aggregate data derived from the TPRs.   

“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.  “We will continue working to safeguard patient privacy and prevent the mishandling of sensitive health data by government agencies.”        

Drs. Bernard and Rouse intervened in the 2024 lawsuit by an anti-abortion organization that led to last week’s settlement agreement between that organization and IDOH.  They are represented by the Lawyering Project and Kathrine D. Jack of the Jack Law Office LLC. 

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