By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
March 10, 2025
The fight over terminated pregnancy reports will return to court Wednesday, as two Indianapolis OB/GYNs seek a preliminary injunction to block the release of the documents to the public.
In February, Marion County Superior Court Judge James Joven granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting TPRs from being disclosed. Joven has since extended the orderand scheduled a half-day evidentiary hearing and oral arguments for March 12 on the motion for a preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit was filed by Drs. Caitlin Bernard and Caroline Rouse against the state health commission and Voices for Life, an anti-abortion nonprofit based in South Bend, to prevent the terminated pregnancy reports from being made publicly available. The physicians took legal action after the Indiana Health Department and VFL reached a settlement agreement – negotiated by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office – that enabled TPRs to be released with some redactions.
Bernard and Rouse had asked for a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the release of the TPRs, while the court considered the request for the preliminary injunction.
In granting the restraining order last month, Joven agreed with the plaintiffs that TPRs are medical records and, therefore, exempt from Indiana’s public access laws.
“The Court preliminarily determines that, notwithstanding reassurances of counsel for the Department and VFL, the settlement agreement would not sufficiently protect against the disclosure of confidential medical records,” Joven wrote in his Feb. 19, 2025, order.
Prior to the March hearing, the parties will have to respond to discovery requests. Joven set a March 7 deadline for the plaintiffs to turn over materials to the defense and initially gave the defendants until March 26 to respond but moved the date up to March 11.
The state health commissioner is represented by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office and Voices for Life is represented by Horvath Legal Services in South Bend and the Thomas More Society. Bernard and Rouse are being represented by solo practitioner Kathrine Jack in Greenfield and The Lawyering Project, a nonprofit law firm focused on reproductive rights.
Two attorneys from The Lawyering Project have filed petitions with the Marion County Superior Court. They are requesting temporary admission to the Indiana bar, possibly indicating they will be arguing for the plaintiffs at Wednesday’s hearing.
Indiana physicians are required by law to file a terminated pregnancy report with the Indiana Department of Health after every abortion they perform. The reports include the patient’s information such as age, county and state of residence, race and ethnicity, number of previous live births as well as details about the procedure such as reason for the abortion and whether the abortion was performed surgically or with medication.
The health department had been releasing copies of the TPRs, but stopped after the state’s near-total abortion ban went into effect in August 2023. Since the number of abortions dropped dramatically, the health department was concerned that women receiving reproductive health care could be identified through the information in the reports. The Indiana Public Access Counselor, in a subsequent informal advisory opinion, agreed TPRs constitute patient medical records and are exempt from disclosure.
Voices for Life sued the health department to get access to the TPRs. After the trial court ruled in September 2024 that TPRs were confidential, the nonprofit turned to the Court of Appeals of Indiana. However, the appeal was dropped when Voices for Life and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office, representing the IDOH, reached a settlement agreement that allowed for the reports to be released to the public.
Subsequently, Bernard and Rouse filed their lawsuit.
The plaintiffs argued in their brief supporting the motion for the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that they will face “an irreconcilable conflict of legal duties” if the TPRs are disclosable. State statute makes failure to file a report after every abortion a crime, but the Indiana Medical Licensing Board has ruled that disclosing “even a fraction of the information contained in the TPR” could result in professional discipline.
Also, Bernard and Rouse asserted the release of the TPRs could cause them to suffer irreparable harm,” especially if groups like Voices for Life post the reports on the internet. They and their patients, the plaintiffs contended, will be put at “risk of harassment by abortion opponents” and they will be deprived of their privacy and face threats to their safety.
The defendants countered in their opposition brief to the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order that keeping the TPRs confidential would not serve the public interest. In particular, they argued Voices for Life serves a “public watch-dog function” by helping “further the enforcement of Indiana’s abortion laws.” Also, they asserted that the IDOH will withhold information that could possibly be used to identify the patient.
“Preventing the release of records which a state agency has voluntarily disclosed, with proper measures taken to protect legitimate privacy interest, would violate the basic public interest served by the APRA statute and weighs against the issuance of a temporary restraining order,” the state health commissioner and Voices for Life asserted.
The case is Caitlin Bernard, M.D., Caroline Rouse, M.D. v. Indiana State Health Commissioner, Voices for Life, Inc., 49D13-2502-PL-006359.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
