46 women had abortions in the last quarter of the year, according to a new state report. Photo from Getty Images.

By Niki Kelly
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — The Indiana Department of Health posted the fourth quarter terminated pregnancy report Monday, March 4, finding 46 abortions occurred between October 1 and Dec. 31. It is the first report in which the state’s abortion ban was fully in effect the entire quarter.

In comparison, there were 1,724 abortions in the fourth quarter of 2022 — before the ban.

Lawmakers returned to the Statehouse in the summer of 2022 to pass a near-total ban following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It outlaws all abortions except in the case of a fatal fetal anomaly and cases of serious health risk to the mother. One part of the law says these exceptions are up to 20 weeks but another part says they can be used anytime. Rape survivors can get an abortion up to 10 weeks post-fertilization.

Abortions can now only be done in hospitals.

Twenty-two of the recent abortions cited a legal fetal anomaly as the exception, 21 were serious health risk or life of the mother. Three were due to rape or incest.

Eight hospitals in Marion and Allen counties performed the procedure, more than half of which were surgical in nature.

There were 21 at the Riley Health Maternity Tower; 10 at the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital; and eight at Indiana University Health University Hospital. All of those are in Indianapolis. Other hospitals had one or two procedures.

Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter said “While we are encouraged abortion numbers fell in Indiana to the lowest fourth-quarter numbers in five decades, serious challenges remain.

“The Indiana Department of Health is blocking public access to terminated pregnancy reports. This manipulation creates a lack of transparency, making it impossible to verify these numbers are accurate – and that Indiana law is being followed related to abortion activity.

“We urge the Indiana legislature to act now by requiring IDOH to follow the law in abortion reporting.”

The Indiana Department of Health sought an opinion from Public Access Counselor Luke Britt on the issue.

Due to the small number and increased reporting requirements, the agency had concerns about violating patient confidentiality by releasing full individual records — government agencies frequently suppress reporting on small groups to ensure that impacted people can’t be identified. Following the ban’s passage in 2022, terminated pregnancy reports must include demographic data and patient medical history.

“Given that the report is populated with information that could be reverse engineered to identify patients — especially in smaller communities — (IDOH argues) that the required quarterly reports should suffice in terms of satisfying any disclosure and transparency considerations,” the December informal opinion said. “This office agrees.”

The records, created by doctors, fall under the provider-patient relationship, Britt ruled.