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Doc Who Provided Abortion to 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Sues Indiana AG

Kenneth Griffin

HR Legend
Jan 13, 2012
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Indiana physician Dr. Caitlin Bernard is accusing Todd Rokita launching a frivolous investigation into a legal medical procedure
The Indiana physician who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohiois suing Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, alleging the attorney general engaged in an “abuse of power” by opening a meritless investigation into her, according to a complaint filed Thursday.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, was placed under national media scrutiny in the aftermath of the Supreme Court axing Roe v. Wade, which rendered abortion in Indiana’s neighboring state Ohio illegal past the point of fetal heartbeat detection, around six weeks. Bernard provided abortion care to a 10-year-old rape victim who had traveled from Ohio to Indiana to circumvent the changing legal landscape in her home state. After initially claiming that the story was fake news invented by pro-choice advocates, conservative politicians and pundits switched tactics following the arrest of the alleged perpetrator and demanding Bernard also be investigated for her role in the case.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita publicly and baselessly insinuated Bernard had committed medical misconduct in her treatment of the girl, even appearing on Fox News following the suspect’s arrest to announce that his office was looking into Bernard and her medical license. He and host Jesse Watters suggested Bernard may have failed to report the assault and abortion, which Watters described as a possible “cover-up.” Rokita accused her of being an “abortion activist” who along with the “lamestream media, the fake news” wanted to politicize the girl’s assault.
The lawsuit seeks to stop Rokita and his co-defendants from “unlawfully [harassing] physicians and patients who are engaged in completely legal conduct and even though neither the physicians nor patients have any complaints about their relationship.” Bernard alleges that the complaints used to justify the investigation against her were “frivolous” and “were submitted by individuals who have no relationship with the targeted physicians or their patients, who lack any personal knowledge of the alleged circumstances giving rise to the complaints, and who have not even provided all the information required on the consumer complaint forms.”
The allegations of a cover-up, or that Bernard has some role in harming the girl, were unfounded. The Indinana Star, which originally broke the story, used public records to confirm that Bernard filed a report with the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services disclosing the abortion in accordance with Indiana law. A separate report was filed with Children Health Services in Ohio, who then contacted law enforcement regarding the matter.
In Ohio, the state where the girl lived, elected officials cast doubt on her very existence. Attorney General David Yost appeared on Fox News and declared that there was “not a damn scintilla of evidence” that the case was real,” and Representative Jim Jordan tweeted that the story was a “lie.”
The lawsuit ultimately looks to prevent state officials from overreaching their authority to target and harass both physicians and patients providing and seeking legal treatments, and could set an important precedent in the post-Roe medical landscape. “All licensed professionals face the exact same dangers as Plaintiffs,” the suit reads. “Only judicial relief that enforces the existing statutory scheme can prevent the unlawful expansion of the Defendants’ investigatory authority over regulated professionals and ensure that Indiana’s licensed physicians can practice medicine and prosper in the free market without the fear of unchecked prosecutorial oversight.”
The suspect in the case, 27-year-old Gershon Fuentes, is awaiting trial.
 
Indiana physician Dr. Caitlin Bernard is accusing Todd Rokita launching a frivolous investigation into a legal medical procedure
The Indiana physician who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohiois suing Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, alleging the attorney general engaged in an “abuse of power” by opening a meritless investigation into her, according to a complaint filed Thursday.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, was placed under national media scrutiny in the aftermath of the Supreme Court axing Roe v. Wade, which rendered abortion in Indiana’s neighboring state Ohio illegal past the point of fetal heartbeat detection, around six weeks. Bernard provided abortion care to a 10-year-old rape victim who had traveled from Ohio to Indiana to circumvent the changing legal landscape in her home state. After initially claiming that the story was fake news invented by pro-choice advocates, conservative politicians and pundits switched tactics following the arrest of the alleged perpetrator and demanding Bernard also be investigated for her role in the case.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita publicly and baselessly insinuated Bernard had committed medical misconduct in her treatment of the girl, even appearing on Fox News following the suspect’s arrest to announce that his office was looking into Bernard and her medical license. He and host Jesse Watters suggested Bernard may have failed to report the assault and abortion, which Watters described as a possible “cover-up.” Rokita accused her of being an “abortion activist” who along with the “lamestream media, the fake news” wanted to politicize the girl’s assault.
The lawsuit seeks to stop Rokita and his co-defendants from “unlawfully [harassing] physicians and patients who are engaged in completely legal conduct and even though neither the physicians nor patients have any complaints about their relationship.” Bernard alleges that the complaints used to justify the investigation against her were “frivolous” and “were submitted by individuals who have no relationship with the targeted physicians or their patients, who lack any personal knowledge of the alleged circumstances giving rise to the complaints, and who have not even provided all the information required on the consumer complaint forms.”
The allegations of a cover-up, or that Bernard has some role in harming the girl, were unfounded. The Indinana Star, which originally broke the story, used public records to confirm that Bernard filed a report with the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services disclosing the abortion in accordance with Indiana law. A separate report was filed with Children Health Services in Ohio, who then contacted law enforcement regarding the matter.
In Ohio, the state where the girl lived, elected officials cast doubt on her very existence. Attorney General David Yost appeared on Fox News and declared that there was “not a damn scintilla of evidence” that the case was real,” and Representative Jim Jordan tweeted that the story was a “lie.”
The lawsuit ultimately looks to prevent state officials from overreaching their authority to target and harass both physicians and patients providing and seeking legal treatments, and could set an important precedent in the post-Roe medical landscape. “All licensed professionals face the exact same dangers as Plaintiffs,” the suit reads. “Only judicial relief that enforces the existing statutory scheme can prevent the unlawful expansion of the Defendants’ investigatory authority over regulated professionals and ensure that Indiana’s licensed physicians can practice medicine and prosper in the free market without the fear of unchecked prosecutorial oversight.”
The suspect in the case, 27-year-old Gershon Fuentes, is awaiting trial.
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Apparently, Indiana's AG, Todd Rokita, is extremely butt hurt. His investigation into the doctor who performed the abortion is on the verge of failure and now he is asking the state's licensing board to impose "appropriate disciplinary action" against the doctor but doesn't specify a requested penalty.

People like Rokita do NOT belong in public office, especially when they attempt to serve their own interests instead of the people's interests F'him.

Indiana's AG wants the doctor who spoke of 10-year-old's abortion to be penalized​


November 30, 20223:26 PM ET
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Dr. Caitlin Bernard, a reproductive healthcare provider, speaks during an abortion rights rally on June 25, 2022, at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.
Jenna Watson/AP
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's Republican attorney general on Wednesday asked the state medical licensing board to discipline an Indianapolis doctor who has spoken publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio after its more-restrictive abortion law took effect.
The complaint alleges Dr. Caitlin Bernard violated state law by not reporting the girl's child abuse to Indiana authorities and violated patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl's treatment.
A rape, an abortion, and a one-source story: a child's ordeal becomes national news

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN AMERICA

A rape, an abortion, and a one-source story: a child's ordeal becomes national news

That account sparked a national political uproar in the weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, with some news outlets and Republican politicians falsely suggesting Bernard fabricated the story and President Joe Biden nearly shouting his outrage over the case during a White House event.
Bernard and her lawyers maintain the girl's abuse had already been reported to Ohio police and child protective services officials before the doctor ever saw the child. A 27-year-old man has been charged in Columbus, Ohio, with raping the girl.
Bernard's lawyers argue Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who is stridently anti-abortion, has been spreading false or misleading information about the doctor with his investigation allegations for several months.
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Indiana doctor says she has been harassed for giving an abortion to a 10-year-old

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN AMERICA

Indiana doctor says she has been harassed for giving an abortion to a 10-year-old

The attorney general's complaint asked the licensing board to impose "appropriate disciplinary action" but doesn't specify a requested penalty. State licensing boards ensure physicians have the appropriate training and education to practice in the state and can suspend, revoke or place on probation a doctor's license.
"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," the office said in a statement. "Simply concealing the patient's name falls far short of her legal and ethical duties here."
The attorney general's office filed the action as an Indianapolis judge considers whether to block the attorney general's office from trying to obtain patient medical records for its investigation. The judge's ruling is expected later this week.
Kathleen DeLaney, a lawyer for Bernard, pointed to testimony from that investigation, including from Bernard, who on Nov. 21 testified that both child abuse authorities and law enforcement in Ohio were involved in the case before the child came to Indiana for treatment.
Indiana AG warned over remark about abortion provided for a 10-year-old rape victim

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN AMERICA

Indiana AG warned over remark about abortion provided for a 10-year-old rape victim

Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Katharine Melnick also testified that day and said child abuse would be reported by hospital social workers, not doctors, and such reports would be referred to law enforcement where the crime occurred.
"Though I am disappointed he has put my client in this position, we are not surprised given Mr. Rokita's consistent efforts to use his office to seek to punish those with whom he disagrees at the expense of Indiana taxpayers," DeLaney said in a statement Wednesday.
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Bernard treated the girl in Indianapolis in late June, as she said doctors determined the girl was unable to have an abortion in neighboring Ohio. That's because Ohio's "fetal heartbeat" law took effect with the Supreme Court's June 24 decision. Such laws ban abortions from the time cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which is typically around the sixth week of pregnancy, before many realize they are pregnant.
Deputy Attorney General Caryn Nieman-Szyper said during a court hearing last week that Bernard wouldn't be under investigation if she had not disclosed the girl's rape to a reporter to advance her own advocacy of abortion rights.
Nieman-Szyper said Bernard had not shown she had permission from the girl's family to discuss her care in public, exposing the child to national attention.
Bernard testified that she spoke with an Indianapolis Star reporter about the girl's impending abortion at an event protesting the Supreme Court's abortion decision.
After the newspaper cited that case in a July 1 article about patients heading to Indiana for abortions because of more restrictive laws elsewhere, Rokita told Fox News that he would investigate Bernard's actions, calling her an "abortion activist acting as a doctor."
Rokita has kept the investigation going even after rape charges were filed in Ohio and public records obtained by The Associated Press show Bernard met Indiana's required three-day reporting period for an abortion performed on a girl younger than 16.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139...poke-of-10-year-olds-abortion-to-be-penalized
 
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