Indiana
Indiana Department of Health seeks dismissal of abortion records lawsuit • Indiana Capital Chronicle
The Indiana Department of Health is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit against the agency that was filed by an anti-abortion group over related records.
The lawsuit in question was filed in May by “Voices for Life,” which seeks to regain access to Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs) that are no longer being released by the state health department.
Legal counsel for IDOH filed a motion to dismiss on June 21, maintaining that Voices for Life “fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” The anti-abortion group has until July 23 to file its response.
Story continues below.
Memo in Support of MTD
Ryan Shouse, an attorney with Indianapolis-based Lewis and Wilkins LLP, emphasized in the motion that, “as a matter of law” TPRs are “confidential” under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act, also known as APRA.
“APRA grants any person the right to inspect and copy IDOH’ s public records,” Shouse wrote, noting, however, that APRA contains exemptions.
He pointed to the law, which states that, “
atient medical records and charts created by a provider” are “excepted from [the general rule of disclosure] and may not be disclosed by a public agency, unless access to the records is specifically required by a state or federal statute or is ordered by a court under the rules of discovery …. “
IDOH pushes for dismissal
Shouse additionally argues that TPRs maintained by IDOH meet the statutory definition of “medical records” — therefore making them exempt from APRA.
Per Indiana Code, “medical records” contain three elements: written or printed information; are in the possession of a provider; and concern a patient’s diagnosis, treatment or prognosis.
Shouse said TPRs meet all three requirements. His motion points out that Indiana Code specifically requires:
- the diagnosis code for fetus and mother for abortions performed prior to 20 weeks
- the medical reason for an abortion
- gestational age and the information used to determine gestational age
- results of pathological testing, if it is performed
- any disability diagnosis of the fetus
- pre-existing medical conditions of the mother, and
- the mother’s obstetrical history
In addition, the statute requires specifics about the procedure itself, such as the precise medications used for nonsurgical abortions.
“This is patient-specific medical information that is used for the diagnosis and treatment of the individual patient,” Shouse said. “In short, TPRs squarely meet Indiana’s definition of a ‘medical record’ because they are written records created and maintained by a provider that contain individualized patient diagnosis and treatment information. Applying this straightforward definition, IDOH properly withheld TPRs pursuant to the medical record exception in APRA.”
Background on the lawsuit
IDOH and Dr. Lindsay Weaver, the state health commissioner, are currently represented by Indianapolis-based Lewis and Wilkins LLP, rather than in-house attorneys from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office.
The South Bend-based “Voices for Life” group is suing the IDOH after it stopped releasing individual TPRs, while still compiling statewide public data quarterly. The change in procedure went into effect in December.
AG denies Indiana Department of Health request for outside counsel in abortion records lawsuit
Before then, the reports — while redacted — were regularly released under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.
The lawsuit, filed in Marion County Superior Court, came just weeks after Rokita called out IDOH and Indiana’s Public Access Counselor for “collusion” and issued a non-binding advisory opinion saying TPRs are public records.
In the past, anti-abortion groups have used the reports to file medical licensing complaints against specific doctors for procedural issues, such as filing a TPR late.
The state health department changed its policy after Indiana’s new, near-total abortion ban went into effect, which meant providers performed far fewer abortions. State health officials were worried that information on the report could indirectly identify the women getting the procedure and sought a ruling from Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt.
Britt agreed that the report could be “reverse engineered to identify patients — especially in smaller communities.”
He found the required quarterly reports of aggregate data should suffice in terms of satisfying any disclosure and transparency considerations. Britt additionally said the records, created by doctors, fall under the provider-patient relationship as medical records.
Britt’s ruling isn’t binding, either.
So far, no court dates have been set in the TPR case. After Voices for Life files its response, it will be up to the judge to decide on the motion to dismiss.
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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The IHSAA baseball state tournament has reached the semi-state round, with the games taking place on Saturday.
Here are the matchups in the semi-state round in each class:
Class 4A
North (Griffith, at Gary Steel Yard)
Game 1 (10:30 a.m. CT): Zionsville vs. Lake Central
Game 2 (12:30 p.m. CT): No. 7 Penn vs. Fort Wayne Snider
The winners will play at 7 p.m. CT. Lake Central is the last team of the group to win the state title, doing so in 2024.
South (Castle; at Braun Stadium, University of Evansville)
Game 1 (10 a.m. CT): No. 3 Evansville North vs. No. 1 Center Grove
Game 2 (1 p.m. CT): No. 10 Bloomington South vs. North Central
The winners will play at 7 p.m. CT. Evansville North made it to state last season, losing to Valparaiso. Center Grove made it to state in 2023, losing to Penn.
Class 3A
North (LaPorte, at Schreiber Field)
Game 1 (10:30 a.m. CT): NorthWood vs. Norwell
Game 2 (12:30 p.m. CT): No. 1 Andrean vs. No. 5 DeKalb
The winners will play at 7 p.m. CT. Andrean won the 3A state title last season, and has won nine state championships.
South (Jasper, at Ruxer Field)
Game 1 (11 a.m. ET): Providence vs. No. 2 Guerin Catholic
Game 2 (2 p.m. ET): No. 4 Gibson Southern vs. No. 8 Cathedral
The winners will play at 8 p.m. ET. Providence is the last team of the group to make the state championship, winning the 2A state title in 2024.
Class 2A
North (Oak Hill)
Game 1 (11 a.m. ET): Lafayette Central Catholic vs. Bluffton
Game 2 (2 p.m. ET): No. 2 Eastbrook vs. Lakeland
The winners will play at 8 p.m. ET. Lafayette Central Catholic made the 1A state championship in 2024, losing to Barr-Reeve.
South (Lawrence Central)
Game 1 (11 a.m. ET): No. 9 University vs. No. 1 Evansville Mater Dei
Game 2 (2 p.m. ET): Heritage Christian vs. Sullivan
The winners will play at 8 p.m. Evansville Mater Dei made it to state last year, losing to Boone Grove.
Class 1A
North (Lafayette Jefferson, at Loeb Stadium)
Game 1 (11 a.m. ET): Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian vs. North Miami
Game 2 (2 p.m. ET): No. 10 Rossville vs. No. 1 Kouts
The winners will play at 7:30 p.m. ET. Kouts made it to state last year, losing to Lutheran.
South (Mitchell)
Game 1 (11 a.m. ET): Hauser vs. North Daviess
Game 2 (1 p.m. ET): Greenwood Christian vs. No. 4 Northeast Dubois
The winners will play at 7 p.m. ET. Hauser is the last team of the group to make it to state, back in 2005, when it lost to Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian.
INDIANA (WANE) — Thousands of customers for multiple power companies in northeast Indiana are without power as a result of severe storms.
As several counties experienced tornado watches and warnings, severe storms rampaging through communities also knocked out power. As of 11:30 Thursday night, approximately 7,000 customers have reported outages across three different power companies.
According to the Indiana Michigan Power outage map, over 2,000 households are without power in Allen and Grant Counties.
On Duke Energy’s outage map, nearly 2,000 people do not have power in Huntington County, and over 24,000 people do not have power in the entire state of Indiana.
Northeast REMC’s outage map shows that over 3,000 people do not have power in its entire service area.
It’s unclear when these power companies will restore power to customers.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Strong to severe storms tonight will be followed by 2 days of really nice weather.
THURSDAY EVENING/NIGHT:
A line of strong to severe storms will move across Central Indiana sometime between 10 PM and 2 AM. The main severe threat looks to be damaging wind gusts (much like the last few days) but we’ll continue to monitor for a quick spin-up and a little hail. Heavy rain may lead to some areas of flooding once again. Temperatures by sunrise Friday in the wake of the rain should be mainly in the 60s.
FRIDAY:
A very nice summer day is on tap with highs in upper 70s to lower 80s, much lower humidity levels, and lots of sunshine. Outdoor and evening activities look good to go!
FRIDAY NIGHT:
Clear, quiet, and comfortable conditions are on track. Look for lows mainly in the lower 60s.
SATURDAY:
Partly cloudy and warm. Afternoon highs will climb back into the mid 80s. Lows in the mid 60s are likely Saturday night.
SUNDAY:
Partly to mostly cloudy. Scattered showers & storms are likely with a passing cold front but severe weather appears unlikely. Much cooler highs mainly in the 70s.
NEXT WEEK:
Cooler than average conditions are likely for at least for the first half of the week. Highs in the mid to upper 70s remain on track for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Low will be in the 50s for a change. Dry weather should hold for Monday but a small rain chance returns Tuesday. More scattered rain & storms may develop by Wednesday afternoon & evening with a stronger storm system moving through the region.
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