A 1986 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in which the Court declared a Pennsylvania statutory provision unconstitutional that required certain patient reporting and recording requirement for physicians performing abortions.
The Court reasoned that, unlike the Missouri law at issue in Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth, the Pennsylvania statute required reporting of more information (such as method of payment, woman’s personal history, and bases of medical judgment) and also the statute did not provide sufficient assurances of confidentiality of the required records. Under the Pennsylvania law, the records, While claimed not to be ‘public,’ are available nonetheless to the public for copying.” Id. at 766. In addition, “[a]lthough the statute does not specifically require the reporting of the woman’s name, the amount of information about her and the circumstances under which she had an abortion are so detailed that identification is likely. Identification is the obvious purpose of these extreme reporting requirements.” Id. at 766-67.