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Marion County Superior Judge James Joven on Monday granted two Indianapolis OB-GYNs a preliminary injunction blocking the Indiana Department of Health from releasing individual terminated pregnancy reports.
The move comes after a short-term temporary restraining order expired. The lawsuit over the records will continue, but, in the meantime, the reports are protected as medical records.
“The Court holds that issuance of an injunction will not disserve the public interest. To the contrary, an injunction will certainly serve a vital public interest – the confidentiality of a patient’s medical records,” Joven wrote.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard and Dr. Caroline Rouse sued in February to block releases after IDOH entered into a settlement agreement with Voices for Life, a South Bend group. That agreement came out of the anti-abortion organization’s 2024 lawsuit against IDOH, filed when the agency stopped releasing the individual reports.
Quarterly aggregated data is still made public.
Joven found the two doctors have proven a reasonable likelihood of success and that they have standing. At least one woman opted not to have an abortion in Indiana after being informed her information would be shared with the state.
“The release of TPRs containing patient health information also stifles open communication between a physician and his/her patient — a patient will be unwilling to describe her symptoms and medical conditions with a doctor who is required to report such discussions to the Department, with the possibility that members of the public can access that information,” Joven wrote.
He added that neither the Indiana Department of Health nor Voices for Life presented evidence that the lack of TPRs hampered abortion law enforcement.
“It is the responsibility of the Commissioner and the Department, in conjunction with the Attorney General’s Office, to uphold abortion laws — they are the state entities specifically charged with investigating and initiating enforcement actions against any doctors who fail to follow such laws. Nothing prevents the Department from reviewing the TPRs to detect possible violations, which is why the legislature requires abortion providers to submit TPRs to the Department in the first place,” the ruling said.
In the past, anti-abortion groups have scoured the reports and then filed complaints against doctors.
But Indiana’s stringent abortion ban, passed in 2022, has meant more data is being collected even as fewer abortions are being performed — such as a diagnosis that meets one of the ban’s narrow exceptions.
After an advisory opinion from Indiana’s public access counselor, the agency stopped releasing the individual reports.
Joven also noted the Indiana Department of Health successfully argued last year that the reports are protected medical records exempt from disclosure under the Access to Public Records Act. But now, the agency is arguing the opposite.
That is because Gov. Mike Braun, who took office in January, disagrees with former Gov. Eric Holcomb’s handling of the issue.
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