Judge Orders Release of Abortion Records [View All]

A federal judge ordered the University of Michigan Health System on Friday to turn over edited abortion records for possible inclusion in a case about a law that bans a particular abortion procedure. All identifying information is to be removed. The university's lawyers said they were satisfied that patient privacy would be safeguarded.

The records are to be turned over to a federal judge in New York, who will determine whether they can be used in a case about the Partial-Birth Abortion Act. The law was passed by Congress last year but blocked by courts after advocates for abortion rights sued.

Justice Department officials say that the abortion records are central to the claims by the law's challengers, including a University of Michigan doctor, that the banned procedure is medically necessary.

The university's general counsel, Ed Goldman, said privacy protections were devised after Judge Avern Cohn of Federal District Court in Detroit said he had no choice but to compel the university to comply with the subpoena. Judge Cohn is to give the records to Judge Richard Casey in New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/politics/13ABOR.html