Women who obtain an abortion in Indiana no longer can be certain a state-mandated record of their procedure won't be used to publicly expose their identity.
Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order Wednesday directing the Indiana Department of Health to reconsider the policy it followed under Republican former Gov. Eric Holcomb that kept Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs) confidential following the August 2023 implementation of the state's near-total abortion ban.
Senate Enrolled Act 1 (2022) mandates hospitals collect and report to the state more than 30 categories of data on each abortion, including demographic information on the patient, characteristics of the pregnancy, the legal justification for the abortion and details about the doctor who performed the abortion.
TPRs do not contain an abortion patient's name. But Holcomb's state health agency, as well as Indiana's public access counselor, concluded such voluminous data on the now-tiny number of Indiana abortions could be reverse engineered to identify specific women who obtained an abortion, especially in smaller communities.
As a result, they said TPRs must be excluded from public release under the Access to Public Records Act the same as any other "patient medical records."
Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita last year invited a legal challenge to that policy, despite his statutory obligation to represent the Department of Health, and the South Bend anti-abortion group Voices for Life promptly filed a lawsuit seeking access to TPRs.
An Indianapolis judge dismissed that case in September after determining current state law clearly exempts TPRs from release under the state's Access to Public Records Act, and the state health agency is under no obligation to provide the reports to Voices for Life — notwithstanding Rokita's contrary opinion
The Republican-controlled General Assembly is poised to change that. Senate Bill 240, currently awaiting action by the Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services, would explicitly exclude TPRs from the medical records exception in the Access to Public Records Act.
In the meantime, Braun's directive commands the Department of Health to determine whether it is "fully and faithfully" executing Indiana's abortion laws, and orders the agency to "fully cooperate" with the attorney general "in the investigation and enforcement of the state of Indiana's abortion laws."
A related executive order also signed by Braun Wednesday authorizes and encourages all executive branch state agencies to share data with all other executive branch agencies as permitted by state and federal law.
Braun additionally issued multiple directives aimed at increasing health care cost transparency, reducing state health care spending and investigating whether Indiana's non-profit hospitals provide charity care in an amount to justify the tax-free status they enjoy.
Afterward, Mike Fichter, president and CEO of Indiana Right to Life, said he's thankful for Braun's "swift and decisive move in support of Indiana's law that has ended 98% of abortions in our state."
"Governor Braun's action today ensures Indiana's abortion law will be enforced under his administration. In directing the Indiana Department of Health to ensure compliance with pro-life laws, including reporting laws, abortion providers are on notice that there is no tolerance in Indiana for illegal abortions, or acts leading to the injury or deaths of women," Fichter said.
In contrast, House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, said Braun's executive order is "cruel and unbefitting of our state" and will "put women through more pain than they've already been through," since Indiana law only allows abortion in cases of rape or incest, when the physical health or life of a woman is at risk, or due to a lethal fetal anomaly.
"Can you imagine how painful that must be for affected women, girls, their spouses and their children? I am disappointed that Gov. Braun wants to put their suffering on display for anyone to see by ordering the Indiana Department of Health to release their records in the form of terminated pregnancy reports," GiaQuinta said.
Records show just 159 abortions were performed at Indiana hospitals between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024.
That was less than 2% of the 9,529 abortions women obtained in the state during calendar year 2022 when the rights formerly guaranteed by Roe v. Wade still were recognized in Indiana.