Indiana limits abortion data for privacy under near-total ban, but some GOP candidates push back

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana allows so few abortions that health officials have stopped releasing individual reports to protect patient privacy — a move some Republicans are now trying to reverse.

Republicans, including prominent candidates this year, want access to reports on every abortion still performed in the state. Abortion rights advocates and some government officials warn that this would jeopardize the privacy of doctors and patients, who can only have abortions under strict circumstances.

The state bans abortions, except within a limited time frame, in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities and serious health risks to the patient. Like many states, Indiana has long collected data on abortions, but the Department of Health decided last year not to make the individual reports public and to release the regular summary data only four times a year to make it more difficult to potentially identify patients .

Indiana law requires doctors to submit “terminated pregnancy reports” with demographic and medical history information to the health department. The reports do not list patients’ names but may include their zip code and county of residence, and experts say they are rarely released in states that collect them.

In the days after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, an individual file obtained by the Indianapolis Star through a public records request confirmed an abortion performed on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio.

The topic has slowly become a political football as Indiana’s competitive primary for governor approaches in early May.

In January, Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Attorney General Curtis Hill called on the Department of Health and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to allow the release of individual reports. Republican lieutenant governor and gubernatorial candidate Suzanne Crouch promised in a post to X in March to make the reports public if she is elected.

And on Thursday, Attorney General Todd Rokita, who is running for re-election, issued an opinion arguing that the reports should be made public. The advice does not change the practice but was in response to an investigation by Senator Andy Zay, a congressional candidate, Rokita’s office said.

Voters should ask the field of gubernatorial candidates to take a stand, Rokita said during a news conference Thursday.

After Rokita released his opinion, the Department of Health said the reports are not public, pointing to an informal advisory written by a designated public data official in December.

Rokita argued that the reports are not medical records and could show whether an abortion was legally performed. Without the reports, he said, “there is no effective way” to enforce the state’s near-total ban.

The Legislature should take action next year if the department doesn’t, Zay said Thursday.

“We can use them as tools to hold people on the periphery of abortion clinics and abortion doctors accountable,” Zay said of the reports.

The individual reports ask patients for information including zip code, age, race, ethnicity, education level, marital status, previous pregnancies, the date of their last menstrual period and the age of the father, according to the most recent quarterly report. Patients can refuse to answer questions, the department said.

Doctors report information about the type of procedure, the reason for the abortion and an estimate of the length of pregnancy. The individual reports also include the name of the doctor, the name of the facility and the date of the abortion.

Indiana’s ban went into effect in August. From October to December, 46 reports of terminated pregnancies were filed with the health department, compared to 1,724 during the same period in 2022.

It’s not common for states to release individual abortion reports, said Rachel Jones, principal investigator at the Guttmacher Institute, an evidence-based research group that supports abortion rights.

Jones said seeking individual reports is an attempt to intimidate health care providers and patients.

“There is no public health or even legal purpose for imposing this,” Jones said.

Rokita denied that the small number of reports makes it easier to identify patients and said the health department may redact some information before making reports public.

The attorney general has waged several legal battles focused on abortion. He gave a television interview in which he criticized an Indianapolis gynecologist who performed an abortion on the 10-year-old from Ohio. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled last year that some of Rokita’s statements violated the rules of professional conduct for lawyers.

Rokita reinforces the reports, said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of the Planned Parenthood region that includes Indiana.

“Denying abortion as health care is an abuse of power aimed at stigmatizing vital services for political gain, at the expense of Hoosiers’ access to essential health care — even when it is only accessible in the rarest of circumstances,” Gibron said in a statement. .