High Court upholds abortion records access

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Opponents of the regulation said the high court's decision not to hear an appeal filed by a Greenville abortion clinic threatens the privacy of women.

State officials and pro-life activists called it a victory that protects women from potentially unscrupulous abortion clinics.

Clair Boatwright, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, said attorneys for the department hadn't had a chance to consult with outside lawyers involved in the case and couldn't say when the regulations would go into effect.

She also couldn't say what impact, if any, the privacy regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which went into effect this month, may have on the issue.

A lawyer for the clinic said the case could affect court rulings in other states and that the decision opens the door for government intrusion into reproductive health that remains closed in other fields of medicine.

"It's the end of it for now, let's put it that way," said Bonnie Scott Jones, attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy who represented Greenville Women's Clinic in the case. "If DHEC starts disclosing abortion patients' medical records, or information about abortion patients suddenly starts getting leaked out, then there will certainly be another case."

Trey Walker, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's office, said the regulation allowing DHEC access to abortion patients' records doesn't infringe on anyone's constitutional rights.

"It's important to remember that under the regulation the documents would only be made available for review if the clinic itself is under investigation by the state licensing authority, which would be DHEC." Walker said. "This does not mean that these clinics are going to have to wholesale turn over names to the state government."

The legal dispute arose from a 1995 decision by the Legislature to change the way abortion clinics are regulated. DHEC subsequently issued a 27-page book of regulations, which also affect medical offices that perform abortions as well as unrelated services. Abortion providers, including the Greenville Women's Clinic, sued to keep them from taking effect.

A federal judge ruled the regulations imposed an undue burden on a woman's right to an abortion by giving providers unnecessary requirements, such as room dimensions and doorway size. But in August 2000, that decision was overturned by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

A year later, a federal judge found the law violated privacy rights because it gave the state access to the medical records. But then-Attorney General Charlie Condon appealed that ruling, and the court ruled in his favor.

One of Greenville's two abortion clinics, Palmetto State Medical Center on Laurens Road, shut down last year, with its owner saying the costs of newly imposed state regulations drove the clinic out of business.

The number of abortions in South Carolina has been declining in recent years. It fell from 9,212 in 1997 to 7,014 in 2001, the latest year from which DHEC has complete figures. Last year in Greenville County, 2,568 abortions were performed, according to DHEC records.

Ruth Trippi, a longtime abortion protester, called the court's action a victory for the pro-life movement.

"Anytime you can go in and regulate those places and find out what's going on, there's a lot of bad things going on in a lot of them," she said — although she said Greenville Women's Clinic "runs theirs pretty strict."

But the Rev. Ennis Fant, pastor of Pleasant View Baptist Church, said the new policy "reeks with invasion of privacy."

"If abortion is about an individual's right to choose, then if they make that choice they shouldn't have to live under the gun of it haunting them 10 to 15 years down the road," he said. "The fact that they have to live with it the rest of their lives should be enough."