An Indiana appeals court has ruled that detailed records about abortions must stay private. The panel said the forms that doctors file after each procedure are private medical records. The decision marks a major point in the growing Indiana Abortion Privacy debate, which has been active since the state began limiting access to abortion in recent years.
The ruling supports an earlier order made by a judge in Marion County. That judge blocked the release of the reports after two doctors filed a lawsuit. The forms are known as terminated pregnancy reports. They include details about each procedure. Doctors across the state must file these reports with the state health agency. The forms list details such as patient age, state of residence and the stage of the pregnancy at the time of care. The forms do not include names.
Two Indianapolis doctors, both specialists in reproductive and maternal health, filed the lawsuit in February. They did so after the state health agency reached a deal with a group that works against abortion access. That group had sued the state in 2024 after the agency stopped sharing the individual reports. Once a new governor took office, the agency reversed its decision and agreed to release them. This change led the two doctors to ask the court to stop it.
A judge from the appeals court wrote the new ruling. The judge said that these reports still count as medical records, even without names. The judge noted a case from 2023. In that case, one of the doctors was given a warning from a medical board. That board said she should not have shared details about an abortion she had provided for a young patient. She had shared details such as age and the date the care was given. The report forms would show many of these same details. The ruling said that leaving out the patient’s name does not change the fact that the forms are medical records.
The two doctors said they welcomed the ruling. They said the decision protects the privacy of their patients. They also said that safe care depends on keeping health details private. They said that this ruling helps them continue to offer needed care while keeping patient trust strong.
State officials did not respond to requests for comment. The case could still be appealed to the state’s highest court in the future. For now, the blocked release of the reports remains in place.
The reports have been released in some form for many years. Groups that oppose abortion have used them in the past to file complaints. These complaints included claims that doctors did not file reports on time. When the state passed a near-total abortion ban in 2022, the number of abortions dropped. With fewer cases, the agency said there was a risk that people could guess the identity of the patient involved. As a result, the agency stopped releasing the individual reports. Instead, they began to release summaries every few months. The summaries give numbers but do not show dates or doctors’ names.
The group that filed the earlier lawsuit said it wanted the full reports so it could track whether doctors were following the new state law. The group claimed that the public had a right to monitor these cases. The appeals court did not agree. The court said that medical privacy has to be protected. It also said the law already allows the state to take action if a doctor breaks reporting rules. The court said the risk of exposing private health details was too great.
This new ruling keeps things as they are for now. The state will continue to publish broad summaries. The detailed forms will stay private unless the state’s top court changes the ruling. The decision adds another layer to the ongoing Indiana Abortion Privacy discussion, which has become a major issue in the state. With the law still in place and the reports now protected, the debate over access, privacy and oversight is expected to continue.
