Tearful Indiana doctor who performed 10-year-old Ohio girl’s abortion hit with fine for pursuing ‘agenda’

Following the repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in June 2022, Dr. Caitlin Bernard made a name for herself after she performed an abortion in Indiana on a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim. Now, the attention-seeking obstetrician-gynecologist has been slapped with a $3,000 fine — not for performing the procedure, but for blabbing about it to the media.

Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a complaint against Bernard and hauled her in front of the Indiana Medical Licensing Board to testify on Thursday, Fox 59 reports. According to Rokita, the doctor was “brazen in pursuit of (her) own agenda.”

(Video: YouTube)

According to Rokita, Bernard violated privacy laws when she spoke to The Indianapolis Star in July 2022 about the abortion. She also failed to report the child’s abuse, the AG alleged.

As BizPac Review reported at the time, Gerson Fuentes, an illegal immigrant, admitted to raping the little girl at least twice, impregnating her when she was only nine years old. In a shocking twist, the girl’s mother defended the rapist and claimed her daughter was “just fine.”

The case became a liberal flashpoint for abortion activists who objected to the Supreme Court’s decision to return the right to legislate abortion to the states, where the Constitution says it belongs.

Bernard and her attorneys denied any wrongdoing.

“I did not release any protected health information,” Dr. Bernard testified. “I complied with all patient confidentiality and HIPAA laws to the best of my knowledge.”

In July 2022, Rokita appeared on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime” and accused Bernard of misconduct.

“We have this abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report,” Rokita said. “We’re gathering the evidence as we speak, and we’re going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure. If she failed to report it in Indiana, it’s a crime for — to not report, to intentionally not report.”

He later filed a complaint with the Medical Licensing Board, arguing that Bernard “violated the patient’s privacy rights and didn’t notify the state of the abuse as required,” according to Fox 59.

Cory Voight, co-director of complex litigation for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, spelled it out: “She failed to report the abuse to Indiana law enforcement and to Indiana DCS.”

But according to paperwork obtained last summer by Fox 59, Bernard did report the abortion to the state two days after seeing the little girl.

Bernard told Rokita’s legal team on Thursday that, while she didn’t speak directly with law enforcement, she followed hospital protocol and informed an IU Health social worker. The terminated pregnancy report, she argued, informed the Indiana Department of Child Services of the abuse.

“I followed IU Health policy, which is to report any known or suspected child abuse to the designee, which is the IU Health social worker, and then the reporting is made from there,” she said.

She defended her interview with The Indianapolis Star.

“I think that it’s incredibly important for people to understand the real-world impacts of the laws of this country,” she said.

In the end, the Board found that Bernard didn’t violate reporting laws, but she did violate HIPPA and state privacy laws when she spoke to the press.

Bernard will receive a letter of reprimand from the Board and was fined $1,000 per privacy violation, for a total of $3,000.

“Like we have said for a year, this case was about patient privacy and the trust between the doctor and patient that was broken,” Rokita tweeted following the hearings. “What if it was your child or your parent or your sibling who was going through a sensitive medical crisis and the doctor, who you thought was on your side, ran to the press for political reasons?”

“It’s not right,” he stated, “and the facts we presented today made that clear. We appreciate the Medical Licensing Board’s extraordinary time and consideration. My team did a great job getting the Truth out. Caitlin Bernard was found liable for violating state and federal patient privacy laws on three separate counts.”

Melissa Fine

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