ABC News Good Morning America - Transcript

ABC News Good Morning America
Date: 03/29/2004
Location: Unknown

SHOW: GOOD MORNING AMERICA (07:00 AM ET) - ABC

BODY:
DAN HARRIS, ABC NEWS

Good morning, Diane and Charlie. Good morning, everyone.

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JAKE TAPPER

(Voice Over) President Bush signed the law banning so-called partial birth abortion last year. Now his Justice Department finds itself being sued by doctors at six hospitals. They argue the 2003 ban is unconstitutional because it allows no exceptions when the mother's health is at risk. The Justice Department is responding aggressively and controversially, issuing subpoenas for the private medical records of these doctors' patients.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL

If the central issue in the case is medical necessity, we need to look at medical records to find out if indeed there was medical necessity.

JAKE TAPPER

(Voice Over) In a similar case, the Justice Department also subpoenaed medical records from Planned Parenthood clinics.

ELIZABETH TOLEDO,

PLANNED PARENTHOOD SPOKESPERSON

Once the government opens the door into medical, personal, private medical decision making, then there is some natural conclusion that can be drawn, you're going to have an invasion of medical privacy.

JAKE TAPPER

(Voice Over) The Justice Department and it's anti-abortion allies argue the files need not identify the women's names.

REPRESENTATIVE MELISSA HART,

REPUBLICAN, PENNSYLVANIA

What we want and what the Justice Department would like to see, is that they, they turn over records minus the names and any identifying parts of those records that would place the privacy of their patients in jeopardy.