Hearing in Boise State Abortion-Study Records Lawsuit: Judge Orders Documents Submitted for Review
A public-records lawsuit against Boise State University (BSU) was heard in Boise, Idaho, on October 23. Ada County Judge Nancy Baskin heard arguments from both sides, ordered the university to submit the documents at issue to the court for review, and said she will issue a written ruling at a later date.
The lawsuit was filed by the Idaho Family Policy Center (IFPC), which seeks data, documents and communications from an abortion study claiming that OB/GYNs are leaving Idaho because of the state's anti-abortion laws. Some details of the study were published in a research letter in JAMA Network Open, which states the study was approved by BSU's Institutional Review Board.
According to IFPC's account of the hearing, BSU acknowledged in court that the researchers kept no records of how they determined whether doctors had left the state and stopped practicing; Judge Baskin responded that the lack of records “seems like an unusual protocol for anything of a scientific nature.” IFPC also cited the university's briefing as saying the data provided to the JAMA letter and to IFPC was a preliminary dataset rather than final data, and that researchers held differing versions of the data. A ruling is pending.
Source: GSM·America
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：博伊西爱达荷州议会大厦。摄影：JSquish，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: the Idaho State Capitol in Boise, by JSquish, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
