AG Rokita to lawmakers: Indiana’s abortion law currently unenforceable — Governor and Legislature ignore the problem

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — REAL News Michiana has obtained two letters sent by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to Governor Eric Holcomb and multiple state lawmakers, requesting executive leadership and legislative action to ensure Indiana’s new abortion law is actually being enforced. According to letters from Rokita, as it stands, the law is nearly unenforceable with little oversight of abortion providers. However, the requests made by the Attorney General were ignored by multiple lawmakers and the Governor with no action being taken.

BACKGROUND

In December, the state’s public records oversight bureaucrat, Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt, issued an opinion limiting the public availability of what are known as Terminated Pregnancy Reports or TPRs. Those reports have historically been available to anyone and list non-identifiable information about the women receiving abortions, such as age, location of the abortion, fetal complications and several details about the unborn baby including gestation age and sex. Britt’s ruling changed the availability of those records, making them nearly impossible for the public to obtain.

So, why does that matter? Answer: Nobody knows if Indiana’s laws are being followed.

According to letters sent by Attorney General Rokita in late January and mid-February, “without the public being able to review TPRs… no member of the public can file a licensing complaint against an abortion provider with my office. Without a complaint by a third party, a licensing enforcement action against an abortion provider cannot be initiated because state statute currently requires such a third-party complaint as a prerequisite to a licensing investigation. Nearly 100 percent of the licensing complaints received on abortion providers are from the public based upon information found in what you intended to be publicly available TPRs.”

While Rokita argues the ruling by Britt regarding the public availability of the TPRs was flawed, he states the legislature COULD have taken action to correct it. However, session has ended and the requests made by the Attorney General were simply ignored.

In a February 13th letter to State Senator Liz Brown and Representative Chris Jeter, Rokita wrote, “with the legislature currently in session, you can make clear that these reports are not medical records and must be released. Although IDOH (Indiana Department of Health) can make proper redactions under current law to protect patient privacy expressly codifying what information must be made public will stop foreseeable future delays from IDOH around this point… Alternatively, you can remove the current requirement that investigations by my office be based solely on third party complaints (since the public now has no information upon which to base a complaint) and remove the limitation of IDOH as the sole investigator of hospitals by authorizing my office to perform such duties as well.”

Once again, Rokita’s requests were ignored. The 2024 legislative session ended on March 14th. Indiana’s abortion laws are still virtually unenforceable.

You can read Rokita’s letters to Governor Holcomb, Senate President Rodric Bray, House Speaker Todd Huston, State Senator Liz Brown and Representative Chris Jeter below.

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