Abortion

Indiana AG Demands Sanctions For Doctor Who Pointed Out That Forcing A Child To Carry Rapist's Baby Is F*cking Barbaric

If you can't lock 'em up, take away their livelihoods, right?

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Reproductive Rights AbortionYesterday Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed an administrative complaint with the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana against OB-GYN Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who spoke out about performing an abortion for a 10-year-old rape victim after she was denied care in her home state of Ohio. In this the AG took a page from the Supreme Court, which responded to the outcry at the overturning of Roe v. Wade by launching an all-out effort to find the Dobbs decision leaker. Apparently, the AG and the Chief Justice are under the impression that Americans, who overwhelmingly support the right to an abortion, will be less pissed off about having it taken away if we don’t get accurate information about the consequences.

Dr. Bernard’s July account of the child’s trauma provoked an immediate firestorm.

Rokita, a staunch opponent of abortion rights, launched himself in front of Fox camera’s to make a bevy of accusations against Bernard, vowing to investigate and prosecute her. He went on to subpoena her patient’s medical records, after which she sued him. The doctor was never charged, although Rokita refuses to say if he’s closed his investigation.

“Imagine being that little girl,” President Biden said at the time, linking the girl’s case to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which was released just days before. “I’m serious. Just imagine being that little girl.”

Meanwhile, everyone from Fox News’s Jesse Watters to the Washington Post’s fact checker Glenn Kessler cast doubt on the veracity of the doctor’s claims. The Wall Street Journal even published an editorial entitled “An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm.”

And so it is positively bizarre that the gravamen of AG Rokita’s complaint rests on Dr. Bernard’s supposed violation of the child’s privacy by disclosing her personal medical records to the media —  particularly since all the relevant details of the case were part of the public indictment of the rapist, which is how local reporters eventually tracked him down. Nevertheless, Rokita claims the doctor violated both HIPAAA and §16-39-1-4 of the Indiana Health Code, which requires a written release for the disclosure of medical records — something no one suggests ever happened.

Furthermore, Rokita alleges that Dr. Bernard violated Indiana’s mandatory child abuse reporting requirements.

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“Here, only Indiana authorities could have possibly stopped this little girl from being sent home to endure possible future harm by her alleged rapist,” he said, despite the fact that the abuse had already been reported to Ohio authorities — i.e. the people with actual jurisdiction over the case — who came to Indiana to retrieve the “products of conception” to match them to the rapist’s DNA.

Indeed, Dr. Bernard did report the abuse, both to the hospital social worker, and in writing two days after the termination procedure to the Indiana Department of Child Services, with a notation that their counterparts in Ohio were already on the case. Nonetheless, Rokita accuses her of failing in her duties and asks the medical board to sanction her.

It is more than a little ironic that Rokita accuses Dr. Bernard of using this poor child’s story to support her own political goals when he himself has so thoroughly exploited it himself. But only one of these people is running for governor in 2024, and it isn’t the one who provided compassionate care to a child and drew attention to the tragedy of the abortion bans Rokita supports.

Indiana Attorney General Asks Medical Board to Discipline Abortion Doctor [NYT]

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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