This week, the Indiana-based anti-abortion group Voices for Life escalated its legal war on the state's Department of Health, pushing to make abortion data public in the state. Since Indiana's criminal abortion ban took effect in 2023 the health department has withheld most of this data—known as “Terminated Pregnancy Reports,” or TPRs—from the public, out of concern that patients could be identified and effectively doxed. In May, Voices for Life first sued the department in a push to release the TPRs. In response, the health department sought to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that TPRs constitute medical records and are exempt from public disclosure under the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA). The state’s motion to dismiss is still pending, but on Tuesday, Voices for Life filed a response, making the disturbing argument that publicizing these private medical records is essential to evaluate “whether abortion providers are complying with the law”—which threatens providers with criminal charges—and allow public officials to “[meet] their duties to enforce the law.” “The black-letter, plain meaning of the TPR statute is that the TPRs are reports and public records, not ‘patient medical records and charts’ exempt from public access by APRA,” the filing continues. Benjamin Horvath, who represents Voices for Life, further argued to Indiana Capital Journal that releasing this abortion data to the public doesn’t violate medical privacy, as TPRs don’t overtly identify patients, and simply include "the diagnosis, prognosis, and history of treatment ‘of the patient.’” This isn’t accurate. Previously, anti-abortion groups have been able to readily access TPRs, often using them to target and file medical licensing complaints against specific doctors. Then, last year, Indiana enacted its near-total abortion ban, which only offers narrow exceptions for specific cases like rape and certain fetal conditions—which means abortion providers in the state are performing fewer abortions. Thus, state health officials are worried that, especially in smaller communities, public reports about abortion data and demographics would indirectly identify abortion patients. The department sought a ruling from the state public access counselor, who then agreed that the public release of TPRs put patient privacy at risk and that TPRs count as private medical records. Still, Horvath insists this data is necessary to give citizens “access to the information they need to determine whether public officials are enforcing the laws that the citizens of Indiana have enacted.” In other words, Voices for Life regards this data as necessary to build possible criminal cases against abortion providers, and potentially dox patients who, if they were allowed abortion under the state's ban, are likely to be rape survivors or patients that suffered highly traumatic pregnancy-related medical conditions. Like all other state abortion bans, Indiana’s doesn’t directly threaten to criminalize abortion patients. Still, cases of criminal charges for pregnancy loss or self-managed abortion are on the rise, the legal advocacy organization Pregnancy Justice reports. The Indiana Department of Health notably isn’t represented by state Attorney General Todd Rokita (R), a rabidly anti-abortion Republican who’s previously wielded his office to wage an unfounded harassment campaign against Dr. Caitlin Bernard for providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio in 2022. The CDC doesn’t require states to report abortion data, which often includes information about the facility where an abortion is performed, the type of abortion, the patient’s demographic characteristics, and the gestation of their pregnancy. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia require abortion providers to submit at least some data to the state government. But Voices for Life’s lawsuit is especially chilling, as it stresses that it’s pursuing this data to sufficiently “enforce” Indiana’s criminal abortion ban.
