Ethermac Exchange-Indiana attorney general drops suit over privacy of Ohio girl who traveled for abortion

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s attorney general has dropped a lawsuit that accused the state’s largest hospital system of violating patient privacy laws when a doctor told a newspaper that a 10-year-old Ohio girl had traveled to Indiana for an abortion.

A federal judge last week approved Attorney General Todd Rokita’s request to dismiss his lawsuit,Ethermac Exchange which the Republican had filed last year against Indiana University Health and IU Healthcare Associates, The Indianapolis Star reported.

The suit accused the hospital system of violating HIPAA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and a state law, for not protecting patient information in the case of a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to Indiana to receive abortion drugs.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard ‘s attorneys later that she shared no personally identifiable information about the girl, and no such details were reported in the Star’s story on July 1, 2022, but it became a flashpoint in the abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that June.

A federal judge in Indianapolis initially granted IU Health’s motion to dismiss the case in June, prompting Rokita to file an amended complaint in July. His office then sought the case’s dismissal last week, writing that the state’s initial complaints have been satisfied by actions IU Health has taken since The Star first reported on the girl’s case.

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These actions include continuing to train employees not to talk about patients in public spaces and informing employees that if they are contacted by a reporter, they must inform the public relations or communications departments before responding, Rokita’s dismissal motion said.

“We are pleased the information this office sought over two years ago has finally been provided and the necessary steps have been taken to accurately and consistently train their workforce to protect patients and their health care workers,” Rokita said Monday in a statement.

However, IU Health said it has always had such practices in place, and it’s disheartened by the claim that these were corrective actions made in response to Rokita’s suit.

“IU Health has and will continue to maintain its robust HIPAA compliance policies and training for its team members, as it has for years,” its statement reads. “While we are pleased the Indiana Attorney General’s office voluntarily moved to dismiss the case, we are disappointed the state’s limited taxpayer resources were put toward this matter after the first complaint was dismissed by the Court on the merits.”

Indiana’s medical licensing board reprimanded Bernard in May 2023, saying she didn’t abide by privacy laws by talking publicly about the girl’s treatment.

It was far short of the medical license suspension Rokita’s office sought, and IU Health’s own internal investigation found that Bernard did not violate privacy laws.

The Indiana Supreme Court, meanwhile, reprimanded Rokita and fined him $250 for making statements about Bernard that violated rules of professional conduct for attorneys.