Clinic Fights Back Against Arizona Attorney General Demanding Abortion Patient Records

An Arizona clinic filed suit last week to stop the state’s attorney general from demanding the names and medical records of patients who have received abortion care and have donated fetal tissue.

A 55-page application for preliminary injunction filed November 17 in Maricopa County Superior Court asked the court to block an August subpoena and a September civil investigative demand issued by the office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Brnovich’s office is demanding that Camelback Family Planning turn over medical documents about the clinic’s procurement and disposal of fetal tissue. The subpoena seeks to compel clinic director Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick to testify about patient records.

“What’s at stake is the privacy of patients—all patients—in the records and details of their treatments,” Jean-Jacques Cabou, an attorney representing the clinic, told Rewire by email. “If the Attorney General can subpoena the records of women who have had an abortion, there is nothing to stop him from subpoenaing other medical records. This is incredibly troubling.”

Read more: https://rewire.news/article/2016/11/21/clinic-fights-back-arizona-attorney-general-demanding-abortion-patient-records/