IDOH settles lawsuit over abortion records with pro-life group 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Just after Indiana Governor Mike Braun's inauguration, he signed nine executive orders, one of them to ensure Indiana's abortion laws are "fully and faithfully executed." That order is what seemingly led to the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) conceding to a lawsuit filed against it by Voices for Life, a South Bend pro-life watchdog nonprofit.

In a settlement agreement, signed by both parties but yet to be finalized, the Indiana Department of Health will once again release terminated pregnancy reports (TPRs).

"We're a relatively small nonprofit that was started two and a half years ago and we sued the government and essentially won," said Melanie Garcia Lyon, executive director of Voices for Life. "We see this as a win for our organization and for unborn children and women in Indiana."

She said their public records requests started getting denied after the state's near-total abortion ban went into effect. They still got aggregated quarterly data from IDOH but could no longer access individual TPRs.

"So it was actually in August of 2023 that our FOIA requests started being denied. That was right after the abortion law went into effect. We made requests every month," Lyon said. "And it was in January [2024] when the health department told us they were no longer going to provide TPRs to the public."

Voices for Life sued IDOH in May 2024, represented by attorneys from the conservative Thomas More Society.

"We represent various people and organizations throughout the country on issues concerning pro-life, First Amendment, religious freedom, et cetera," said Thomas Olp, vice president of the Thomas More Society, based in Chicago.

IDOH filed a motion to dismiss in June, citing patient privacy concerns. At the time, the Indiana Public Access Counselor agreed with their decision, but would not comment when ABC57 requested an interview Wednesday.

"The abortion ban in Indiana is now so narrow, that releasing, even without names of patients, individualized reports really would have the effect of outing people," said April Lidinsky, board member of Pro Choice South Bend in a Jan. 23 interview with ABC57.

The motion to dismiss was granted in September after a judge heard oral arguments from both sides, writing in his ruling, "This Court is not persuaded that the law, as written, makes the termination of pregnancy reports (TPRs) public records."

Voices for Life appealed the decision.

"What we have is an administration that's friendlier to providing this information," Lyon said.

Gov. Braun's executive order on enforcing all state abortion laws effectively made TPRs public record once again.

"Because of the executive order, the state then approached us and said, 'Hey, we'd like to settle this since it's going to be resolved in your favor by reason of executive order,'" Olp said.

Voices of Life demanded the following information not be redacted from the forms as part of the settlement:

• date of abortion
• age of patient
• state where patient lives
• abortion facility
• type of abortion
• provider's name & address
• consents obtained
• fetus gestation time
• reason for abortion

"[Patient] names have never been on TPRs," Lyon said.

Voices for Life is now empowered to continue its watchdog efforts monitoring abortions in the Hoosier state.

"We made a request already," Lyon said, "and we received an update today that it's being processed. So, we'll have a lot of backlog of information to look through, but our enforcement team is ready."

All parties have signed the settlement agreement, but the appeal from Voices for Life still needs to be dismissed for the agreement to be official. Because of that, IDOH refused to comment while it's still a pending legal matter.

ABC57 got a statement from Pro Choice South Bend that reads:

This is an incredibly disappointing outcome and should alarm every person who wants to have their medical privacy respected. Considering the highly restrictive abortion ban in Indiana -- with exceptions only for cases of trauma and likely death -- the threat to reveal personal medical information is especially cruel.

This decision also shows that our state government can be bullied by people with a minority opinion, since poll after poll shows that the majority of Hoosiers believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases (see two polls, below). This should worry all of us who believe in fair governing and democratic representation.

~ April Lidinsky