Abortion, other reproductive health info would be shielded in court documents under pioneering proposal

Reproductive health information contained in Cook County court documents would be shielded from public view under a first-of-its-kind proposal designed to protect women as more states restrict abortion and threaten to prosecute those who travel to obtain the procedure.

The initiative would automatically seal or redact details about someone’s reproductive health in court documents, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez announced Tuesday.

“In these uncertain times, we must ensure reproductive health remains a private matter and the details discussed in courtrooms around Cook County may never be held against any woman criminally or civilly,” Martinez told reporters at her Daley Center office.

La Voz Sidebar

Lea este artículo en español en La Voz Chicago, la sección bilingüe del Sun-Times.

The proposal must still be written into state law before it can go forward.

Redacted information may include whether a person had an abortion, underwent fertility treatment, was sexually assaulted, experienced a miscarriage or used birth control.. Those details might now appear in criminal cases or in divorce proceedings, but under the proposal they would be private.

Called the Women’s Right to Privacy, the initiative would be the first such protection in the country, according to the Circuit Court clerk’s office. The idea arose during the clerk’s effort to digitize and automate the Cook County court system’s paper-based records. Martinez championed state legislation that passed in 2022 to redact personal information about sexual assault victims in criminal court documents.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

About 100 million court records have been digitized as of last week, Martinez said. Former Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown pushed for records to be digitized during her administration. In 2018, the Illinois Supreme Court mandated all state court systems electronically file documents.

Katie Dunne was alarmed to see how much personal information was being shared in court documents when her organization, Chicago77, started working with the clerk’s office in 2020. Her group works with local agencies on public safety and public health projects.

“This system was not protecting women’s privacy,” Dunne said, “whether women were victims and seeking justice, or simply involved in divorce proceedings. Women’s health and fertility information were prevalently found in great detail in public records.”

Chicago77 and a group of Northwestern University graduate students have been helping Martinez’s office create the technology needed to automatically redact information from active cases and seal closed cases.

Now that Martinez has the framework, her administration has started working with state lawmakers to craft legislation to grant her office and other state circuit courts the authority to use it. Chicago77, working pro bono for the clerk, is seeking private funding to build the software needed to automate the redactions and seals.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

“We face a deep distrust of the court systems,” Dunne said. “There is a stunning number of women that are subjected to violence every day in Cook County. When victims do not trust the system and do not come forward, there cannot be accountability.”

If someone has reproductive health information in an existing closed case, they currently can file a motion with the Circuit Court to have those details redacted or have the case sealed, said Carmen Navarro Gercone, executive clerk.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot also spoke at Tuesday’s news conference. She applauded Martinez’s commitment to protecting women facing the court system.

Martinez, who was a state senator before taking office, is at the end of her first term and up for reelection. She faces Mariyana Spyropoulos, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board, in next Tuesday’s primary election.