Last summer, following the official overturning of Roe v. Wade with the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson decision, the news was rocked by a story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who became pregnant from rape and got an abortion in nearby Indiana, performed by Dr. Caitlin Bernard. The story invited widespread scrutiny and speculation, but was proven to be true when a suspect, illegal immigrant Gerson Fuentes, was arrested for the rape. Bernard is now back in the news, as she goes before an Indiana medical licensing board for a disciplinary hearing on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
As the AP explained:
The Medical Licensing Board’s hearing comes after Indiana’s Republican attorney general accused Dr. Caitlin Bernard of violating state law by not reporting the girl’s child abuse to Indiana authorities. She’s also accused of breaking federal patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment.
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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s complaint asked the licensing board to impose “appropriate disciplinary action” but doesn’t specify a requested penalty.
The Indiana board — made up of six doctors and one attorney appointed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb — could vote whether to impose any penalties Thursday after hearing what is expected to be several hours of testimony. State law gives the board wide latitude, allowing it to issue reprimand letters or suspend, revoke or place on probation a doctor’s license.
A judge ruled last December that the medical licensing board indeed does have jurisdiction. When it comes to the accusations Bernard is facing, there definitely were concerns about reporting requirements, as she reported that the age of the rapist was 17, when he's actually 27.
Further, there was so much attention bestowed upon this 10-year-old and her ordeal from around not just the country, but the world, after Bernard spoke to the Indianapolis Star, and it all caught on like wildfire from there.
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From a July 1 report:
On Monday three days after the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio.
Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant.
Could Bernard help?
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But for now, the procedure still is legal here [in Indiana]. And so the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard's care.
As Ohio's Attorney General Dave Yost confirmed, the 10-year-old victim would not have had to go to Indiana for her abortion, as she would have qualified for exceptions under the law to save the life of the mother or severely compromised physical health.
That Ohio law has been tied up in the courts, and Indiana's abortion law passed last August also faces court battles.
This is not the first time that Bernard has faced accusations of duty to report. She was accused by Indiana Right to Life in 2018, after the access of public documents, for failing to report underage abortions. She also has quite the history of being an abortion activist as Townhall and Megan Fox at our sister site of PJ Media have covered.
Bernard had sued Rokita but ultimately dropped her suit last December.
Rokita responded on Twitter to the hearing on Thursday morning.
Our Indiana Supreme Court has long recognized physicians must "maintain the confidentiality of all knowledge and information regarding a patient," unless disclosure is required by law or authorized by the patient. This is in the administrative code and it's in Indiana's case law.
— AG Todd Rokita (@AGToddRokita) May 25, 2023
This Board gets to decide whether it's acceptable in Indiana for a licensed physician pursuing a political agenda, without patient authorization, to disclose enough details about this little girl's tragic situation to identify her and her family to the world.
— AG Todd Rokita (@AGToddRokita) May 25, 2023
He had also responded to a particularly sympathetic piece on Bernard from last October with The Washington Post.
She shared her patient’s personal medical information with a reporter at a political rally. I wouldn’t call that “fighting” for them. How would you feel if your doctor took your medical trauma to the press? https://t.co/T2394RXnik
— AG Todd Rokita (@AGToddRokita) May 24, 2023
Fuentes is not mentioned by name in the AP article, nor is his immigration status or his connection to the victim's mother. The AP merely mentions that "a 27-year-old man was charged with the rape in Columbus, Ohio." His trial, which Mia and Fox have been following, has been continued to July 5.
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