Indiana Court Continues to Block Release of Abortion Patients’ Health Information
Ruling in Response to Lawsuit Filed by OB-GYNs
03.24.25 – (PRESS RELEASE) Today, the Marion County Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction that will continue to block 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 in order to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of patients’ health information. The same court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) last month in response to the doctors’ request. The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until the court issues a final judgment in the case.
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 thrilled that the court has ruled to protect our patients’ privacy,” said Drs. Bernard and Rouse in a joint statement. “Physicians like us and our patients will be at-risk if people’s personal health information is unnecessarily released. This decision reinforces the fundamental principle that privacy is an essential component of 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.
“Government agencies should carefully safeguard the confidentiality of private health information that is entrusted to them,” said Stephanie Toti, Executive Director of the Lawyering Project. “We will continue standing with our clients to prevent the health department from publicizing details about their patients’ abortion procedures.”
Drs. Bernard and Rouse intervened in the 2024 lawsuit by an anti-abortion organization that led to the settlement agreement between that organization and IDOH. They are represented by the Lawyering Project and Kathrine D. Jack of the Jack Law Office LLC.
###