After Banning Almost All Abortions, Indiana Republicans Come for Private Medical Records

After Banning Almost All Abortions, Indiana Republicans Come for Private Medical Records

According to a new report by the Associated Press, Indiana Republicans –  including candidate for governor and current Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch – are fighting to force health officials to release personal medical records of patients that receive reproductive health care in the state.

As the Associated Press reports, Republicans are demanding the personal health care records of the very small amount of women who obtain an abortion, given the state’s current near-total ban, which has limited exceptions for rape or incest.

This is just the latest attack on Hoosiers’ personal freedom and privacy from the Republican field running to be Indiana’s next governor. Lt. Governor Crouch was the deciding vote to require rape victims to provide a notarized affidavit in order to seek an abortion or face criminal consequences. Crouch presided overRepublicans’ special session to pass the state’s near-total abortion ban.

U.S. Senator Mike Braun has said that “Indiana did a decent job” with the near-total ban and that he is “perfectly comfortable” with criminal penalties. Throughout his time in the Senate and as a state legislator, Braun voted and sponsored legislation to ban abortion nationwide and create criminal penalties for doctors, spread misinformation about reproductive health care, defund Planned Parenthood, and more, all while opposing exceptions for rape or incest. In 2021, Braun “cosponsored the Life at Conception Act,” which recognizes a fertilized egg as a person, which, if enacted, could “severely restrict IVF treatments.”

Braun, Crouch, and Eric Doden were all endorsed by the far-right extremist organization Indiana Right To Life that not only advocates for stripping Hoosier women of their constitutional freedoms, but has been openly hostile to the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.

“As if the state’s near-total abortion ban that gives rapists more rights than survivors wasn’t enough, this extreme Republican field of candidates are demanding personal health care records,” said DGA States Press Secretary Emma O’Brien. “With less than a month until the primary, these candidates are competing to be the most extreme, leaving Hoosier families behind in the process. No matter who the Republican nominee is, they will be too extreme to be Indiana’s next governor.”

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