Same article.

The Justice Department has said that it needs the medical records to defend the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, passed by Congress last year. Several abortion providers who are suing to block use of the law assert that the ban would prevent them from providing medically essential procedures. Justice Department lawyers say they need to examine records from those doctors' facilities to test those assertions.

Judge Casey, as well as federal judges in San Francisco and Nebraska, have temporarily blocked the government from enforcing the ban, and trials in all three cases are due to start next week. In a ruling earlier this week, Judge Casey, who is hearing a case brought by the National Abortion Federation, refused to strike down the law before the issue went to trial.

Last December, Judge Casey issued an order giving New York-Presbyterian authority to produce the medical records, but not requiring it to do so. He went further on Thursday, upholding the Justice Department's demand for the records.

Judge Casey said the records were not covered by federal laws governing medical privacy because the hospital could delete information that identified the women who received abortions.

The judge also rejected the hospital's argument that turning over the records would be an "undue burden" and could prompt "anger and mistrust of its patients, and damage to its reputation."

The hospital was brought into the issue because two of its attending doctors are among abortion providers suing to block the law. Hospital officials said it was still unclear how many of its patient records would be covered by the Justice Department's request.