Case: Fort Wayne Women Health v. Health Commissioner

This case concerns a challenge to an Indiana County ordinance which imposed a special set of requirements on doctors who practiced in Fort Wayne-Allen County, but lived outside of the area and did not have privileges to admit patients at local hospitals.

On May 27, 2010, Fort Wayne Women’s Health and an Indiana physician (collectively, “Women’s Health”) filed suit for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health and its Health Commissioner in Allen County Court. Plaintiffs challenged a Fort Wayne-Allen County’s ordinance titled “An Ordinance Concerning Public Safety.” The ordinance mandated specific actions regarding patient care in notice, required that providers identify a “physician designee” and pay a $250 fee, and authorized unlimited review of patient medical records by the County Health Commissioner and Department of Health. Women’s Health alleged that the ordinance represented an undue burden on the rights of Women’s Health’s patients to receive an abortion, was unconstitutionally vague, and discriminated against persons based on where they lived. In addition, Women’s Health alleged that the ordinance violated the right to informational privacy that Women’s Health’s patients had in their medical records and subjected plaintiffs to unreasonable search and seizure in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as Article 1 of the Indiana Constitution. Plaintiffs were represented by the ACLU and Center for Reproductive Rights. 

On June 16, 2010 the case was removed to federal court in the Northern District of Indiana, where it was assigned to Judge Robert L Miller.

On July 26, 2010 plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint which removed the County Department of Health as a defendant and updated the jurisdictional section to match the new venue. 

On August 11, 2010 the court granted in part and denied in part plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction. The court granted plaintiffs claims with regard to its Fourteenth Amendment informational privacy claims because of a mismatch between the ordinance’s stated goals and the state and federal requirements for and inspection of patient notification forms. The court denied plaintiffs’ claims with regards to any violation of Indiana’s Home Rule Act, which grants localities “all the powers they need for the effective operation of government as to local affairs,” finding that the county’s ordinance was logically consistent with state regulations and also denied plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claims on the grounds that no unconstitutional search had been committed. 

The parties settled the case, with plaintiffs filing a stipulation to dismiss the case with prejudice on March 3, 2011. The stipulation was granted the next day. Pursuant to the settlement, county officials would not be able to subpoena, review or otherwise access patient documents without the patient’s permission.

This case is now closed.