The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) is concealing evidence of wrongdoing\u2064 by abortionists \u2064by refusing to release records that\u2063 expose their medical \u200bmalpractice. <\/strong>This\u2063 decision comes \u200bafter a series of embarrassing incidents for\u200c both the health department and the abortion industry, which were brought to light when these records \u2062were made \u200dpublic in \u2062accordance with state law.<\/p>\n

Last year, the records revealed<\/a> potential violations of Indiana law by abortionists who failed to report abortions\u200c performed on girls under the age of 16, who were\u200c likely victims of rape. They also showed that the IDOH failed \u2063to shut down several abortion facilities, \u2063even after four women died following abortions at those facilities.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In\u200d November, Indiana Attorney \u200dGeneral Todd Rokita faced criticism from the state Supreme Court’s ethics office for \u200dpursuing investigations based on information revealed in these \u2062records. He\u200b was even threatened with the loss of his law license after accurately \u200dstating<\/a> that an abortionist who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim was “an abortion activist acting<\/a>\u200b as a \u2063doctor\u2014with \u200ca history of failing to report.”\u2062 Despite paying a fine to resolve the issue, abortion supporters are now calling for another investigation<\/a> into Rokita’s law \u2064license, claiming he hasn’t shown enough remorse publicly.<\/p>\n
For years, Voices for Life has\u2062 used Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act to obtain “thousands” of monthly terminated pregnancy reports (TPRs) without any issues. These records are used by pro-life organizations to\u200b file complaints with the IDOH and the attorney general’<\/a>s office regarding potential misconduct\u2064 by abortionists, as revealed \u2062in the\u200b reports.<\/p>\n
In July 2023, just before Indiana’s pro-life law went into effect, the IDOH stopped releasing this data to Voices \u200bfor Life, citing conflicts with privacy laws. Indiana now allows abortions up to 10 weeks gestation if the mother claims rape, up to 20 weeks gestation for fetal abnormalities, and until \u200cbirth \u2064if the mother’s life is at risk.<\/p>\n
After\u2064 months of delay, the IDOH claimed it would indefinitely withhold TPRs from the pro-life organization, stating that\u200d state statutes\u2063 declare “medical records confidential<\/a>.” The department argued that the significant decrease<\/a> in abortions due to Indiana’s post-Dobbs \u200bv. Jackson<\/em> legislation<\/a> would make it easier to identify\u2064 women who have had\u2063 abortions. <\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
“Due to\u200c the impact of legislative changes in SEA 1 (SS), individual terminated pregnancy\u200c reports submitted to IDOH after\u2063 August \u20631, 2023 are no longer releasable through public records request,”\u200c the IDOH stated.<\/p>\n
In a\u200d letter<\/a> issued in December 2023, Public Access Counsel Luke Britt from Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office supported IDOH’s \u2062decision to withhold TPRs \u200cfrom the public, despite it being mandated by the state legislature. Britt argued that the new requirements for abortionists under the \u200bSeptember\u200b 2022 law would compromise patient confidentiality.<\/p>\n
Voice for Life’s\u200c Executive Director Melanie Lyon\u2062 finds the department’s and Britt’s concerns about confidentiality unfounded. \u2063She stated that her organization \u2063received TPRs between September 2022 and\u200d June 2023 \u200dthat included additional information about the reason\u2063 for \u200dthe \u2063abortion. \u200d <\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
Lyon also mentioned that they received redacted TPR documents each month, but now they won’t be able to access the redacted information because Britt claims it would “defeat\u2062 the statutory purpose of the confidentiality\u200c requirement.”<\/p>\n
Without access\u2063 to the monthly TPRs, organizations like Lyon’s must rely on\u200d quarterly TPRs<\/a> to \u2062hold abortionists accountable for violating Indiana laws. However, these quarterly reports only provide aggregated data<\/a>, making it impossible to identify specific doctors and hospitals involved in ending pregnancies. This means that crucial information that was \u2063previously available to Voices for Life, other pro-life organizations,\u2064 and Rokita’s office to investigate abortionists who disregard Indiana’s laws is now \u200bbeing hidden.<\/p>\n
Access to\u200d information about repeat offenders\u2062 who break the state’s abortion laws is crucial for third\u200b parties filing complaints with the state. The IDOH’s history \u200cof\u200d errors<\/a> in abortion data raises doubts about whether the quarterly reports accurately reflect \u2062the true outcomes of Indiana’s abortion exceptions.<\/p>\n
“Enforcement is impossible in Indiana if we don’t have this data,” Lyon said.<\/p>\n
Last \u200dyear, detailed TPRs obtained \u2062by Voices for Life and The Federalist<\/a> revealed that abortion facilities across Indiana may have committed crimes and violated health\u200c regulations in 2022, including performing abortions on underage girls. <\/p>\n
Despite three women dying \u200cafter abortions and two babies being born alive after failed chemical\u2062 abortions, none of the 22 \u2064abortionists<\/a> accused of malpractice had\u200c their licenses \u200crevoked. \u2063Instead, Indiana’s Republican legislature and governor increased IDOH’s funding by 2,000 percent, from $7 million to $150\u200c million.<\/p>\n
“I don’t have any \u2063indication that the Health Department \u2064was reviewing the documents and doing these investigations internally on their \u2064own. It did take an outside\u200b party requesting\u2062 and reviewing this data to bring it to their attention,” Lyon told \u200dThe Federalist.<\/p>\n
The IDOH \u200bhas not responded to The Federalist’s \u2063request for comment.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
rnrn <\/p>\n
What reasons did the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) give for withholding terminated\u200d pregnancy reports (TPRs) from organizations like Voices for Life?<\/h2>\n
The Indiana Department of Health \u2064(IDOH) is facing scrutiny\u200c for its decision to withhold records that expose medical malpractice by abortionists. This \u200bdecision comes after a series of incidents were brought to light when\u200b these records were made public in accordance with state law. <\/p>\n
Last \u200dyear, these records revealed\u2063 potential violations of\u2064 Indiana law by abortionists who failed to report abortions performed on underage \u200cgirls, likely victims\u200b of \u200drape. Additionally, the records showed that the IDOH failed to shut down several abortion\u200b facilities, even after four women died following abortions at those facilities. <\/p>\n
Indiana Attorney \u2062General Todd Rokita faced criticism for pursuing investigations based on information revealed in these records. He was \u200deven threatened with the loss \u200dof\u200d his law license \u200cafter accurately stating \u2064that an abortionist who performed an\u2062 abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim was “an abortion\u2062 activist acting as a doctor\u2014with \u2062a history of failing to \u2063report.” Despite paying a fine to resolve the issue, abortion supporters are now calling for another investigation into Rokita’s law license, claiming he hasn’t shown enough\u2062 remorse publicly. <\/p>\n
For years, organizations like Voices for Life have used Indiana’s Access to Public Records \u200cAct to obtain monthly terminated pregnancy reports \u200d(TPRs) without any issues. These records are used to file complaints with the IDOH and the attorney general’s office regarding potential misconduct by abortionists. <\/p>\n
However, in July 2023, the IDOH stopped releasing this data to Voices \u200cfor Life, citing conflicts with privacy \u2063laws. The IDOH claimed it would indefinitely withhold TPRs from the\u200d organization, stating that state statutes declare medical records confidential. \u2062They argued that the \u2063significant decrease in abortions due to \u2063Indiana’s post-Dobbs v. Jackson legislation would make it easier to identify women who have had abortions. \u2063 <\/p>\n
Despite the IDOH’s decision, Voices for Life’s Executive Director Melanie Lyon\u200d finds\u200c the department’s concerns about confidentiality\u200d unfounded. Lyon stated that her organization received TPRs between September 2022 and June 2023 that \u2064included additional information about the \u200dreason for the abortion. <\/p>\n
Without access to\u200c the monthly TPRs, organizations like Voices for Life must rely on quarterly \u200dreports \u200dto hold abortionists \u2064accountable for violating Indiana laws. However,\u200b these quarterly reports only provide aggregated data, making it impossible to \u2063identify specific doctors and\u2062 hospitals involved in\u200c ending pregnancies. This lack of transparency hinders the ability of pro-life organizations and the \u200cattorney general’s office to investigate abortionists who disregard\u2064 Indiana’s laws. <\/p>\n
Access to information about repeat offenders who break the state’s abortion laws\u2062 is crucial for third parties filing complaints with the state. The IDOH’s decision to withhold \u2064these \u2063records is concerning and raises \u200cquestions about transparency and accountability in the abortion \u200dindustry. It is important for the IDOH to reconsider this decision and\u200b ensure that the public has access to records that expose \u200cmedical malpractice and potential violations of the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) is no longer releasing abortion records that reveal medical malpractice, shielding law-breaking abortionists from accountability. This change comes after the health department and the abortion industry faced public scrutiny due to the disclosure of these records, as mandated by state law. In 2020, the records uncovered significant instances of malfeasance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2152829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2152828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2152828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2152828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2152828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2152828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2152828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}