Reports that state law requires doctors to file about individual abortions can’t be released to the public under a decision upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s five justices voted unanimously in a June 29 order to let stand a state Court of Appeals decision from December that the records — known as terminated pregnancy reports — should be protected as confidential medical records.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard and Dr. Caroline Rouse, both Indianapolis OB-GYNs, sued last year to block release of the documents after the state Department of Health entered into a settlement agreement with South Bend-based Voices for Life.
That agreement came out of the anti-abortion organization’s 2024 lawsuit against the Health Department, filed when the agency stopped releasing the individual reports but reversed itself after Gov. Mike Braun took office in January 2025.
The Supreme Court justices — all of whom were appointed by Republican governors — followed their typical practice and did not explain their decision to decline the state attorney general office’s appeal.
New York-based Lawyering Project has represented Bernard and Rouse in the case. The organization said in a statement that it welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Exposing patients’ medical records to the public is as disturbing as it is unlawful,” said Stephanie Toti, the group’s executive director. “We will continue to stand with our clients and their patients to ensure people’s private medical information is kept out of the hands of anti-abortion activists.”
The state attorney general’s office, which is representing the Health Department in the case, said Monday it “is reviewing the Court’s order and evaluating our options.”
The Health Department previously released the reports — redacted to protect the identity of patients — as public records for years.
Anti-abortion groups had filed complaints with the attorney general’s office based on the abortion reports, including if a doctor filed a report late. But the Health Department stopped releasing them after the state’s near-total abortion ban enacted in 2022 meant far fewer abortions and concerns that patients could be identified.
The agency currently releases aggregate data on abortions performed in the state in quarterly reports that do not include the names of the doctors or dates of procedures.
Voices for Life argued that it was seeking the reports in order to monitor whether doctors were abiding by the abortion ban law.
But a Marion County judge issued a temporary restraining order in early 2025 keeping the reports confidential. A 3-0 ruling from the Court of Appeals in December kept that order in place.
The appeals court decision cited the reprimand Bernard received in 2023 from the state Medical Licensing Board for publicly discussing the abortion she provided for a 10-year-old rape victim.
Bernard’s statements then shared some of the same information, such as age, state of residence, gestational age and approximate date of treatment, that would be available from the terminated pregnancy reports.
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