Indiana limits abortion data for privacy under near-total ban, but some GOP candidates push back

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana allows so few abortions that health officials stopped releasing individual reports to protect patient privacy — a move some Republicans are now fighting to reverse.

The Republicans, including prominent candidates for office this year, want access to reports detailing each abortion still performed in the state. Advocates for abortion rights and some state officials warn that would jeopardize the privacy of physicians and patients who can only receive abortions under strict circumstances.

The state bans abortions except within limited time frames in cases of rape, incest, lethal fetal anomaly and serious health risks to the patient. Like many states, Indiana has long collected data on abortions, but the Department of Health last year decided to keep the individual reports from public record and only release its regular summary data four times a year to make it harder to potentially identify patients.

Indiana law requires physicians to submit “terminated pregnancy reports” with demographic and medical history information to the health department. The reports do not name patients but can list their zip code and county of residence, and they’re rarely released in states that collect them, according to experts.

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