A disciplinary hearing is underway in Indiana to decide whether to penalize a doctor who spoke publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, has accused Dr. Caitlin Bernard of failing to report child abuse and violating patient privacy by speaking to a reporter about the young girl’s case. In a written complaint in November, Rokita asked the Indiana Medical Licensing Board to impose disciplinary action on Bernard accordingly.
That is the subject of Thursday’s hearing: By the end, the board may vote on whether Bernard should face any penalties. Under Indiana law, possible disciplinary actions include issuing reprimand letters or suspending or revoking a doctor’s license.
In July, The Indianapolis Star reported that Bernard had taken a call from a doctor regarding a suspected case of child abuse involving the 10-year-old girl. The child was just over six weeks pregnant. Ohio prohibits abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, under a law that was enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The girl went to Indiana to receive care from Bernard, the Star reported, where abortion was legal at the time. Since then, Indiana has passed a near-total abortion ban, though a judge subsequently put the law on hold.
Cory Voight, director of complex litigation for the Indiana state attorney general’s office, told the licensing board on Thursday that Bernard violated state law by not maintaining the patient’s confidentiality and not reporting the case to Indiana law enforcement and the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Voight added that Bernard also violated HIPAA, an act that prohibits medical professionals from disclosing a patient’s sensitive health information without their consent or knowledge.
“This is not a typical hearing. There’s been no case like this before the board. No physician has been as brazen in pursuit of their own agenda,” Voight said in opening remarks.
Bernard’s lawyer, Alice Morical, said that Bernard did report child abuse in a manner consistent with Indiana law, since she informed a social worker at her university about the 10-year-old patient. Where HIPPA is concerned, Morical added, Bernard did not violate the law because her comments to The Indianapolis Star did not include identifying information such as a patient’s name, date of birth or date of hospital admission.
“Physicians can talk to the media,” Morical said.
Indiana University Health, where Bernard works as an OB-GYN, investigated the issue last year and determined that Bernard had complied with patient privacy laws.
Bernard sent Rokita a cease-and-desist letter in July asking him to stop making “false or misleading statements” about her.
Bernard’s case has been highly publicized, since her story about the young girl elicited strong reactions from political figures on both sides of the aisle.
“Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl,” President Joe Biden said in a news conference in July, when he signed an executive order to safeguard abortion access. The order included protections for those who travel from a state that prohibits abortion to a state where the service is legal.
Some Republican leaders, including Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, falsely suggested in July that Bernard had fabricated the story of her young patient, as did Fox News commentator Jesse Watters and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
An Ohio man, Gerson Fuentes, was charged with the 10-year-old girl’s rape in July and a detective testified that month that the girl had received an abortion in Indianapolis on June 30.
It has not been made public what Fuentes’ relationship to the girl was prior to the alleged rape. Bernard said at Thursday’s hearing that her colleague in Ohio told her the girl had two brothers who were possible suspects.
Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
