Horrible crime occurs in Iowa. Infant, 24-48 hours old is killed and the body dumped at a recycling center, presumably (as such cases usually go) by the mother.
Law enforcement has no clue as to the mother’s identity. But they get a bright idea — check out hospitals and the like for records of pregnancy tests, then track down any positives to find out what the outcome is.
Just ponder that one for a moment.
Okay, let’s continue.
Enter Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, which does quite a bit of such testing. It says, Uh, wait a second. If you have a particular name or two in mind, we can certainly cooperate — we’ll contact the woman involved, get her consent, or let you get a subpoena for her records, and then we’ll turn those records over to you.
Police say, Nuh-uh. We have no idea of the name of the person we’re looking for. We want all pregnancy test records you have. We’ll sift through them discreetly. We promise.
Promise away, says PPGI. Those are medical records. You simply can’t do that, and as horrified as we are by this crime, we cannot turn over those records. There are nearly 1,000 tests there, and those patients expected confidentiality. You can’t just go fishing through private medical records. That’s what Iowa state law says.
Police say, But this is the only way to find the murderer.
PPGI replies, You don’t know that. The body could have been dumped by someone from another area, someone who didn’t come to us. The woman involved — if it even was the mother — might have tested with a home kit. All you know is that you’re going to call up a bunch of women who had positive pregnancy tests, determine the outcome (if they carried to term, put the kids up for adoption, miscarried or had an abortion), and figure out how to prove what they claim — where they got the abortion, did anyone see them carry to term, etc. And if they would rather forget about it, or keep it a secret, too bad. That’s a huge intrusion on their privacy, on their lives, without any basis to expect you’ll actually find the person you’re looking for.
Police shrug and get the DA to go to the judge. Judge Frank B. Nelson says, Hogwash, those aren’t medical records, ’cause a doctor or nurse doesn’t have to administer the test. Fork ’em over, or go to jail.
Get that? If it wasn’t a nurse or a doctor who handed you the cup to pee into (or whatever), this judge says it’s not a confidential medical record.
Given that many clinics and medical centers simply have you go to the lab and have a lab tech hand you the cup (etc.) — thus saving trained personnel and their costly hours — I daresay that makes a lot of lab tests suddenly open to request by the police, etc.
As Margie opined, rather angrily, if this had been a test for a male condition — prostate testing, or impotency, let’s say — the judge involved would likely have ruled rather differently. I’m inclined to agree.