Ind. judge tells Planned Parenthood to yield records on children

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana judge ruled yesterday that Planned Parenthood of Indiana must turn over to the state the medical records of its patients under 14.

Marion County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Johnson sided with the Indiana attorney general's office in its quest to examine the medical records of 84 young patients.

However, the state said it will not press the matter and seek the records until appeals promised by Planned Parenthood have run their course.

''It would be our intent to wait until the process has worked itself through," said Staci Schneider, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Steve Carter.

Planned Parenthood tried to stop the seizure, arguing that investigators were on a ''fishing expedition," possibly to identify the partners of sexually active 12- and 13-year-olds. None of the 84 patients has received an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood.

The attorney general's office has said its Medicaid fraud unit ''is investigating whether or not children were neglected by virtue of a failure to report . . . child molestation to the proper authorities."

Since the state seized medical records of at least six patients in March, Planned Parenthood has instructed its clinics not to turn over medical records to the fraud control unit.