Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Thursday accused the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Public Access Counsel of “collusion” and issued a non-binding advisory opinion stating that aborted pregnancy reports are public record. Announced.
“You have a right to sue the state of Indiana. That’s the bottom line. You have a right to these documents,” he said during a Facebook Live event. “And no unelected official can say otherwise.”
Rokita made the statement at the request of Huntington Republican Sen. Andy Zhai. Zai asked about the document after the Indiana State Department of Health (IDOH) changed its procedures in December.
Previously, the reports had been redacted but routinely released under Indiana’s public records access law.
IDOH withholds individual abortion pregnancy reports
IDOH changed its policy after the state’s new abortion ban went into effect, and providers performed fewer abortions. State health officials asked the Indiana Public Access Counsel for a ruling, concerned that the information in the report could indirectly identify women who underwent surgery.
Some of the data collected on the Terminated Pregnancy Report (TPR) includes the woman’s age, education, marital status, date of abortion, gestational age of the fetus, the woman’s race and ethnicity, and the woman’s personal history. Includes species and ethnicity. The city and county where the abortion took place.
Public access counselor Luke Britt said the report “could be reverse engineered to identify patients, especially in smaller communities.”
He agreed with IDOH that the required quarterly reports are sufficient in meeting disclosure and transparency considerations. And Britt said records created by doctors fall under the provider-patient relationship as medical records.
However, Britt’s ruling is also non-binding. And Rokita pointed out that even though IDOH is the state’s attorney, he has never sought legal advice from the attorney general’s office.
IDOH’s response cited Britt’s comments and reaffirmed its position that the records are confidential under Indiana law. They did not comment on Mr. Rokita’s position.
new legal opinion
Rokita reached a different conclusion in an 11-page opinion, saying the report was not a protected medical record.
“Although the term “medical record” is not defined, its usual meaning and context indicate that the term refers to confidential patient records maintained by health care providers for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. I am. TPR doesn’t fit into that category. “The TPR is a report submitted to a public authority for the purpose of evaluating compliance with state laws governing abortion,” Rokita’s opinion states.
Destiny Wells, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, disputed Rokita’s opinion in a statement.
“Hoosier women are outraged by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s actions today regarding private health data. There is no excuse for punishing Hoosiers for state-sanctioned patient confidentiality violations by Todd Rokita.”
Last year, Rokita’s office filed a professional license lawsuit against Dr. Caitlin Barnard, alleging that she violated patient confidentiality by telling a reporter that a 10-year-old girl came from Ohio to perform an abortion after being raped.
The girl’s identity was not released, but the Indiana Medical Licensing Board found that Bernard violated its privacy policy. She was given a letter of reprimand and a $3,000 fine.
Rokita said Thursday that despite the low number of abortions, it is still not possible to identify patients.
“The Ministry of Health could redact some of the information found to potentially lead to the identification of pregnant women, but I don’t think that’s possible at all,” Rokita said. “Partial redactions are legal and are an option to resolve any issues the Ministry of Health considers.”
Zai said it would be no problem if he could do that. He called Rokita’s opinion “a wake-up call for government agencies to correct themselves before getting involved as a member of Congress.”
Rokita said he sent a letter to Gov. Eric Holcomb and legislative leaders during the session about the issue, but no action was taken.
He said there is information in the report that requires his office to investigate whether doctors are complying with Indiana law. Some of these are still available in quarterly reports published by IDOH.
However, these documents do not contain all the information, such as the doctor’s name, the date of the abortion, and whether the report was submitted on time.
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