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Dr. Caitlin Bernard and another board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist are suing the Indiana State Health Commissioner and the nonprofit Voices for Life, Inc., arguing that terminated pregnancy reports should not be disclosed under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Marion Superior Court.
Bernard and Dr. Caroline Rouse are asking the court to issue a declaratory judgment stating the terminated pregnancy reports submitted to the Indiana Department of Health under Indiana Code § 16-34-2-5 are exempt from disclosure under the state’s public records act.
The plaintiffs are also asking the court to declare that the public records act does not authorize the state health department to grant members of the public access to terminated pregnancy reports.
The doctors are represented by Kathrine Jack of the Jack Law Office, LLC in Greenfield. She did not immediately respond to Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment.
Voices for Life also did not respond by IL’s publication deadline. Attorneys for the defendants were not listed in the lawsuit.
Bernard made headlines in 2022 for her involvement in a lengthy dispute with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
Rokita announced that he was investigating the doctor for alleged privacy and reporting violations after Bernard told the Indianapolis Star about a 10-year-old Ohio girl who came to Indiana for an abortion after Ohio changed its abortion laws following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Indiana attorney general was later reprimanded for his televised comments about Bernard.
In 2023, Bernard was reprimanded by the Indiana Medical Licensing Board for discussing the procedure publicly.
Rokita released an opinion in February 2024 stating that terminated pregnancy reports do not constitute medical records protected under the state’s public records act.
Last May, Voices for Life, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end abortion, filed a lawsuit against the state health department after the department denied its requests for access to terminated pregnancy reports from August 2023 through March 2024.
The Access to Public Records Act generally requires public agencies to provide the public with access to public records but exempts certain records that are “required to be kept confidential by federal law” and “[p]atient medical records and charts created by a provider, unless the patient gives written consent,” according to Indiana Code § 5-14-3-4(a)(3), (9).
In June, the court granted a motion for intervention for Bernard and Rouse, who intervened as defendants. But the court dismissed the lawsuit in September.
Last month, Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order directing state agencies to ensure the state’s abortion laws are “fully and faithfully executed”.
The nonprofit had filed a notice of appeal in the Indiana Court of Appeals in October, but on Tuesday, it filed a motion to dismiss the appeal.
Lawyers for the nonprofit issued a press release detailing a settlement agreement between the organization, the department of health and the health commissioner, which stated that the health department agreed to “[i]mmediately release terminated pregnancy reports as public records upon lawful request and not designate the reports as confidential medical records.”
The agreement stated that the department will release individual reports, but with redactions to protect patients’ identities.
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