Indiana judge rules its GOP AG can continue to investigate doctor for disclosing she performed

Indiana’s Republican attorney general can continue to investigate an Indianapolis doctor who spoke publicly about aborting a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio, a judge has ruled.

An attempt to block an investigation by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office was rejected by Marion County Judge Heather Welch. She also ruled Friday in a separate lawsuit that Indiana’s abortion ban adopted in August violates the state’s religious freedom law signed by then-Governor Mike Pence in 2015.

However, Indiana’s abortion ban has been suspended since mid-September as courts consider a challenge from abortion clinic operators who argue the ban violates the state constitution.

The judge’s ruling on the investigation of Dr. Caitlin Bernard came two days after the attorney general’s office asked the state medical licensing board to discipline Bernard, alleging she violated state law by failing to report abuse. child’s child to Indiana authorities and violated patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the child’s treatment.

That account sparked a national political uproar in the weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June, and some Republican politicians and media outlets suggested that Bernard fabricated the story.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (pictured) accuses Dr. Bernard of violating state law by failing to report child abuse of the unidentified girl to Indiana authorities and violating patient privacy laws by telling him to a journalist about the girl’s treatment.

The girl had not been able to get an abortion in Ohio after a more restrictive abortion law went into effect there.

Bernard filed a lawsuit against the state attorney general last month, arguing that Rokita’s office was wrongly justifying the investigation with “frivolous” consumer complaints filed by people with no personal knowledge of the girl’s treatment.

Bernard and his lawyers maintain that the abuse of the girl had already been reported to the Ohio police before the doctor saw the girl.

An attempt to block an investigation by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office was rejected by Marion County Judge Heather Welch. The judge also ruled in a separate lawsuit that Indiana’s abortion ban adopted in August violates the state’s religious freedom law signed by then-Governor Mike Pence in 2015.

However, the judge denied Bernard’s request for an injunction to block the investigation. Welch ruled that the medical licensing board now had jurisdiction over the matter since the attorney general filed the complaint Wednesday. That complaint asked the state medical licensing board to impose “appropriate disciplinary action” without specifying a proposed sanction.

The board, which has the authority to suspend, revoke or place a doctor’s license on probation, said Friday it had received the complaint but no hearing date had been set.

However, Welch discovered that Rokita mistakenly made public comments about Bernard’s investigation before the complaint was filed. Welch wrote that Rokita’s statements “are clearly unlawful violations of the license investigations statute’s requirement that employees of the Attorney General’s Office maintain confidentiality about pending investigations until referred to the prosecution.”

Bernard’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, criticized Rokita for violating its “duty of confidentiality” and preemptively taking the case to the medical board, “thus removing control from Judge Welch.”

“We are confident in the record and testimony that we have already developed and look forward to presenting Dr. Bernard’s evidence to the Medical Licensing Board,” DeLaney said.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard (pictured) and her defense allege that the abuse of the girl had already been reported to police in Ohio before she met the girl.

The attorney general’s office said the ruling supported the protection of patients’ privacy rights.

“The doctor and her attorneys started this media frenzy early on, and it continues to draw attention to this innocent girl who is trying to cope with horrific trauma,” the office said in a statement that did not address the judge’s criticism of public comments. from Rokita about the case.

Bernard provided the girl with abortion drugs in Indianapolis in late June, as he said doctors determined the girl could not have an abortion in neighboring Ohio.

That’s because Ohio’s ‘fetal heartbeat’ law went into effect with the US Supreme Court’s decision to end women’s constitutional protections for abortion. Such laws prohibit abortions from the time heart activity can be detected in an embryo, which is usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.

Despite the ongoing investigation, Todd Rokita accused a 27-year-old man of raping the young woman.

Rokita has kept up the investigation even after a 27-year-old man was charged in Columbus, Ohio with raping the girl and public records show that Bernard complied with Indiana’s required three-day notice period for an abortion performed in a girl under 16 years of age.

In Welch’s ruling on the state’s abortion ban, the judge sided with five residents, who profess Jewish, Muslim and spiritual faiths, who argued that the ban would violate their religious rights when they believe abortion is acceptable.

“The indisputable evidence establishes that Claimants do not share the State’s belief that life begins with fertilization or that abortion constitutes the intentional taking of human life,” Welch wrote. ‘Rather, they have different religious beliefs about when life begins. … Under the law, the Court finds that these are sincerely held religious beliefs.’

Rokita’s office, which has been defending the abortion ban in court, did not immediately comment on the ruling in the religious freedom lawsuit.