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Hospital abortion records privacy wins support of federal appeals court

Compliance Monitor, March 31, 2004

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A federal appeals court March 26 rejected the Justice Department's demand for abortion records from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, saying the disclosure of the records would compromise the privacy of women who had abortions there.

According to a March 26 story in The New York Times, the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago was the first time an appeals court has weighed in on whether the federal government has a right to demand abortion records in its defense of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The Justice Department said in a statement that it "has made every attempt to ensure that sensitive patient information remains private" and that it planned to continue aggressively defending the ban passed by Congress last year, according to the Times story.

"Both the United States District Court and Court of Appeals made a fundamental finding that the significant intrusion into patient privacy outweighed the government's need for these records to prove its case," according to a March 26 statement from Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "We are pleased with this result and the reassurance it provides to our patients."

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