UPDATE (December 1, 2022):
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (ADAMS) – Indiana’s Attorney General is calling for disciplinary sanctions against an abortion doctor.
Attorney General Todd Rokita wants the state licensing board to issue discipline for Dr. Caitlin Bernard after she provided abortion care to a ten-year-old rape victim from Ohio. Rokita alleges Bernard broke the law when she told a reporter the girl’s age.
Dr. Bernard is suing Rokita’s office and has requested an emergency preliminary injunction to stop the Attorney General from accessing patient medical records. A Marion County judge is expected to make a decision on that request this week.
Read more here
The Office of Attorney General Todd Rokita today released the following statement on Wednesday:
Today, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General filed an Administrative Action against Dr. Caitlin Bernard before the Indiana Medical Licensing Board. Based on the physician’s own testimony under oath, she violated federal and Indiana law related to patient privacy and the reporting of child abuse.
First, the physician failed to uphold legal and Hippocratic responsibilities by exploiting a 10-year-old little girl’s traumatic medical story to the press for her own interests. The Hippocratic oath provides, in part: “I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.” Dr. Bernard violated the law, her patient’s trust, and the standards for the medical profession when she disclosed her patient’s abuse, medical issues, and medical treatment to a reporter at an abortion rights rally to further her political agenda. Simply concealing the patient’s name falls far short of her legal and ethical duties here.
Second, she failed to immediately report the abuse and rape of a child to Indiana authorities. This is required under Indiana law. Here, only Indiana authorities could have possibly stopped this little girl from being sent home to endure possible future harm by her alleged rapist.
UPDATE (November 22, 2022):
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (ADAMS) – An Indiana abortion doctor is testifying as part of her lawsuit against Attorney General Todd Rokita.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard is suing to prevent Rokita from accessing medical records for a 10-year-old from Ohio who received abortion services from Bernard this year.
Dr. Bernard took the stand in Marion Superior Court Monday, as did Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Katie Melnick. The judge is expected to review the testimony and make a final decision by next week.
Read more here
Attorney General Todd Rokita issued the following statement regarding Dr. Caitlin Bernard case:
“This is what was said in court and in our filed paperwork:
If the doctor did not choose to use her patient, a 10-year-old rape victim, to further her own political agenda, we would not be here today.
There is no defensible reason for this doctor to shatter her 10-year-old patient’s trust by divulging her abortion procedure to a reporter so her traumatizing experience could be used in the polarizing abortion debate on the heels of Dobbs.
The evidence strongly suggests that the doctor violated the mandatory reporting law, which required her to immediately report the child’s abuse to Indiana authorities.
Only by reporting to Indiana authorities immediately, as called for by statute, might the little girl have been spared from potentially being sent back to her perpetrator.
This doctor demands immunity from all scrutiny, but her remedy is before the Medical Licensing Board, not an injunction from this Court.
We believe she has failed to carry her burden of proof and that the Office of the Attorney General should be free to continue its statutory duty to hold physicians and other practitioners to the standards of the law. ”
ORIGINAL POST:
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (ADAMS) -The doctor who performed an abortion on a ten-year-old rape victim from Ohio is suing to stop Indiana’s attorney general from accessing medical records.
The lawsuit filed by Dr. Caitlin Bernard and her medical partner claims Attorney General Todd Rokita is sending subpoenas for medical records of patients who never filed complaints to the AG’s office.
They want an Indiana court to stop the investigation, saying his actions violate a number of Indiana’s statutes. They claim the AG’s investigation is based on what they called “frivolous” consumer complaints.
Read more here
Todd Rokita’s office released the following statement:
“By statutory obligation, we investigate thousands of potential licensing, privacy, and other violations a year. A majority of the complaints we receive are, in fact, from nonpatients. Any investigations that arise as a result of potential violations are handled in a uniform manner and narrowly focused. We will discuss this particular matter further through the judicial filings we make.”