INDIANAPOLIS – A Marion County judge on Tuesday dismissed a case that sought to overturn a state agency’s decision to exempt terminated pregnancy reports from public record. An appeal is almost certainly guaranteed.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Oakes ruled in favor of the Indiana Department of Health, which stopped sharing the reports following the state’s adoption of a near-total abortion ban. The state agency believes the reports are medical records and could be used to identify people seeking abortions due to the level of detail required and the small number of procedures occurring.
Among the data collected on the terminated pregnancy reports are the age, education, and marital status of the woman, the date of the abortion, the gestational age of the fetus, the race and ethnicity of the woman, as well as the city and county where the abortion occurred. They also list the doctor’s name, which outside groups have used to file licensing complaints.
The department still releases an aggregate report quarterly.
Oakes praised both IDOH and plaintiff Voices for Life, an anti-abortion South Bend group, for well-written briefs and well-presented oral arguments.
“Usually, these make a Court’s job easier. However, as with most cases of statutory interpretation, legislative intent, word choice, placement, and other interpretative analysis and arguments, make this decision a little less clear,” Oakes wrote in the two-page ruling.
“In the end, the Courts are obligated to follow the law as written, regardless of personal beliefs, electoral pressures, or potential non-judicial consequences or outcomes,” Oakes added.
Read the entire Whitney Downard story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
