An attorney for the Indiana obstetrician, who has drawn national attention for providing abortion care to a 10-year-old rape victim, said Thursday that the doctor had taken “all appropriate and proper steps” in the case — including filing the necessary forms to get the abortion with state authorities, contrary to the claims of the attorney general of Indiana.
The case of the rape victim, who crossed state lines from Ohio to have an abortion in Indianapolis, has become a hot-button issue in the nation’s raging abortion debate. Many on the right — including the Ohio Attorney General — initially doubted the truth of the story when it was shared by Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the midwife from Indiana. The story was later confirmed the arrest of the man accused of raping the girl. Still, Dr. Bernard under the microscope.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita told Fox News on Wednesday that he intended to Dr. Bernard, and suggested that she had not submitted the required reports.
“We’re collecting the information, we’re collecting the evidence as we speak, and we’re going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she didn’t report,” Mr. Rokita said in an interviewin which he Dr. Bernard, who works in Indianapolis, attacked as an “abortion activist acting as a physician, with a history of failing to report.”
But a document obtained by The New York Times appears to contradict Mr Rokita’s claim. The document, a “termination of pregnancy report” filed with the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services, states that Dr. Bernard provided abortion medication – a combination of two pills which can be taken at home or any location and is approved for use during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy – to a 10-year-old patient on June 30. The report was dated July 2, putting it within Indiana’s three-day reporting requirement.
Read more about the end of Roe v. Wade
The lawyer of Dr. Bernard, Kathleen DeLaney, said in the statement released Thursday that she is “considering legal action” against Mr Rokita and others, adding that “the facts will all come out in due course”.
A Rokita spokesperson said Thursday evening that his office continued to collect evidence and that “our legal review of it remains open”.
The Story of the Ohio Girl Who… appeared first in The Indianapolis Starcast a spotlight on the difficulties the most vulnerable face in getting abortion services in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade.
Ohio law prohibits almost all abortions after fetal heart activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. According to a doctor familiar with the girl’s case and testimony from a court hearing, her family took her to Indiana to undergo an abortion, where the procedure is legal for up to 22 weeks.
President Biden cited the Ohio girl as an example of the brutality of abortion bans in some states. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state,” Mr Biden said last week as he… executive order on abortion.
Abortion opponents and some right-wing outlets are casting doubt on whether the story was true. A Wall Street Journal Editorial headlined “An abortion story too good to confirm” claimed the president had given his “seal of approval to an unlikely story from a biased source.”
But the speculation ended Wednesday when it was revealed that a 27-year-old man from Ohio had been… arrested and charged with rape. (The Journal later published an editor’s note on top of its editorial.)
The form provided by Dr. Bernard lists the estimated age of the father as 17. Doctors often make their best guess when the pregnancy is the result of abuse, and little may be known about the perpetrator.
The case has also exposed the vulnerabilities of medical professionals, such as Dr. Bernard, who continue to care for patients amid a patchwork of state laws related to abortion. dr. Bernard hit back on Twitter himself on Wednesday evening.
“My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I’m so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most.” she wrote. “Doctors need to be able to give people the medical care they need, where and when they need it.”
Under Indiana lawthe physician performing an abortion on a patient under 16 must notify both the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services within three days, although the statute does not specify whether that may change if the patient is referred from outside the state .
“These laws are meant to trap us,” says Dr. Katie McHugh, an OB-GYN in Indiana and a board member of the Physicians for Reproductive Health group.
dr. McHugh said abortion providers, especially those in states led by anti-abortion lawmakers, have long been wary of the precise reporting requirements laid out in abortion regulations.
“These abortion reporting requirements are designed to criminalize the provider rather than the actual criminals,” she said. “The AG’s comments are not about protecting children; they are about targeting abortion providers”
Mrs. DeLaney, the attorney, said that Dr. Bernard “had followed all relevant policies, procedures and regulations in this case, just as she does every day to provide the best possible care for her patients.
“She has not broken any law, including patient privacy laws, and she has not been disciplined by her employer.”