YOUNGSTOWN Speaker describes fight for privacy

The speaker was threatened with jail time for failing to open patient records.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Exactly one year ago, the body of a tiny newborn was discovered at a recycling plant in a small town in Iowa.
The baby's body was so mangled from being run through the machinery that authorities couldn't determine its race or sex.
Finding who was responsible for such a heinous crime became top priority for law enforcement officials in Storm Lake, a little town where everybody knows everybody.
In their zealous attempt to find the woman who had given birth to the baby, investigators did something just as heinous, creating even more victims: They rifled through the medical records of dozens of women, violating their rights to privacy, said Jill June, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, the only health-care provider that refused to open patient records.
At first, June said, she and the attorney representing Planned Parenthood didn't believe the subpoena, which failed to name a specific patient, would hold up in court.
"It was a dragnet. They wanted the records of everybody," June told an audience of about 65 during Planned Parenthood of the Mahoning Valley's annual dinner gala Thursday night at the D.D. Davis Center in Mill Creek Park.
"We were astonished that the judge upheld it," she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
Still, June refused to open patient records, choosing instead to take the matter to the Iowa Supreme Court.
What resulted
Despite her refusal to open patient records, news of law enforcement officials' rummaging through the private records in many physicians' offices -- in some cases, physicians opened their records without even being served with a subpoena, June said -- scared many women into going without health care. "Pregnancy test rates dropped 85 percent at our clinic."
The prosecutor argued that pregnancy test records were not protected by physician-patient confidentiality laws because, in most cases, the tests are performed by nurses or technicians, not physicians, June said.
If that premise were upheld, she continued, it would set a precedent for dozens of diagnostic records -- blood tests, mammograms and a slew of others -- to become open to the public, or at least nosy investigators.
Despite threats that she would be sent to jail for violating a court order, June, Planned Parenthood and their legal team refused to back down. Eventually, the county prosecutor gave up, she said.
Although it bothers her that Planned Parenthood won the case by default -- there was no ruling -- she said it was a victory for the thousands of women across the country who trust the organization.
"Quality health care can only be provided in an atmosphere of trust," she explained.
Afterward, June said she heard horrible stories about how what she termed "the pregnancy police" went to private homes and demanded that women who had been pregnant produce a baby or proof that they had suffered a miscarriage, had an abortion or put the baby up for adoption.
As the result of her actions, June was named one of Ms. Magazine's "Women of the Year," although she shuns the attention.
"It was the right thing to do and anyone of you would have done the same thing," she told the audience.
kubik@vindy.com