Abortion and How Indiana settles with anti-abortion group;

The Indiana Department of Health opted to settle with an anti-abortion group seeking access to terminated pregnancy reports on Monday, as outlined in a seven-page agreement.

The department will release the individual reports filed on every abortion, though with redactions to protect identity.

Indiana’s abortions sharply fell after the state adopted a near-total abortion ban, shrinking from thousands of procedures a year to more than 100. Citing patient confidentiality concerns, IDOH opted not to publicize individual terminated pregnancy reports — instead releasing aggregate information quarterly.

Voices for Life, an anti-abortion group from South Bend, sued the state, seeking access just one month after Rokita publicly sided against IDOH’s decision

A Marion County judge dismissed the suit in September, though Voices for Life vowed to appeal. Earlier this month, Braun weighed in, issuing an executive order declaring the reports to be public records.

“Given that the report is populated with information that could be reverse engineered to identify patients — especially in smaller communities — (IDOH argues) that the required quarterly reports should suffice in terms of satisfying any disclosure and transparency considerations,” the December informal opinion said.

Patient privacy is assured by the physician-patient relationship and HIPAA regulations.  The records, created by doctors, fall under the provider-patient relationship, Britt ruled.

“It follows that IDOH should treat the form with the same confidentiality considerations as any other patient medical record,” Britt said.

This aligns with a recent ruling from the Indiana Medical Licensing Board that disclosing “even partial and seemingly non-identifiable information by medical providers can lead to legal consequences.”

State settles with anti-abortion group; will release terminated pregnancy reports • Indiana Capital Chronicle