Looks like this story slipped under my radar: Ashcroft attempted to subpoena medical records of women who received legal abortion care. Apparently the court blocked this request:

Judge won't let Ashcroft have hospital's abortion records: U.S. Chief District Judge Charles P. Kocoras blocked a move by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to obtain medical records from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where dozens of the controversial procedures have been performed in the past two years. The late-term abortions were performed by Dr. Cassing Hammond, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is part of a New York lawsuit challenging the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The plaintiffs are a group of doctors as well as abortion-rights advocacy groups. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. Justice Department lawyers subpoenaed the medical records of 40 patients to see if they contradicted Hammond's claims that the abortions were necessary to protect the mothers' health. Kocoras ruled that strict Illinois medical privacy laws meant the patients' records couldn't be released. 'By demanding the rationale behind the abortions he performed, the subpoena would thereby require Northwestern to disclose medical history information of Dr. Hammond's patients,' Kocoras wrote in a Feb. 5 opinion, noting that, while Hammond practices at Northwestern, he is not a hospital employee. More importantly, Kocoras wrote, the Northwestern patients aren't involved in the lawsuit -- their doctor and the federal government are.

This information was forwarded to me by NARAL ProChoiceAction.org.