Indiana Attorney General Faces Lawsuit For 'Meritless' Investigation Into Doctor Providing Abortion Care To 10-Year Old Rape Victim
The lawsuit seeks to stop oversteps by the Attorney General.
You’ll recall that shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, stripping women of the reproductive freedom enshrined in law for 50 years, stories of the horrors the decision wrought poured in. One of the most heart wrenching was the — completely true — story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and had to travel to Indiana to receive abortion care. Dr. Caitlin Bernard provided the girl with the care she needed, and received an investigation from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita for her hard work. He’s a Republican, natch.
But Bernard and her medical partner Amy Caldwell have hitting back at Rokita. They’ve filed a lawsuit over the “frivolous” investigation they say was based upon complaints against Bernard that were not from her patients. As reported by Law & Crime:
“The Attorney General’s and Director’s improper conduct dissuades patients who need emergency abortions from seeking care,” the lawsuit says. “It also threatens patients seeking legal abortions that their most personal and private medical records and health care decisions could be exposed as part of a meritless investigation.”
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The complaint also makes the salient point that though the instant investigation was focused on medical professionals, the precedent created by the investigation can spiral:
“Defendants’ current targets are physicians who provide medical care, including abortion services permitted under Indiana law. But there is no reason to believe Defendants will stop there,” the complaint says. “All licensed professionals face the exact same dangers as Plaintiffs. Accordingly, only judicial relief that enforces the existing statutory scheme can prevent the unlawful expansion of the Defendants’ investigatory authority over regulated professionals and ensure that Indiana’s licensed physicians can practice medicine and prosper in the free market without the fear of unchecked prosecutorial oversight.”
Kelly Stevenson, Rokita’s press secretary, had the following comment about the case: “By statutory obligation, we investigate thousands of potential licensing, privacy, and other violations a year. A majority of the complaints we receive are, in fact, from nonpatients. Any investigations that arise as a result of potential violations are handled in a uniform manner and narrowly focused. We will discuss this particular matter further through the judicial filings we make.”
The complaint seeks an injunction, which, according to a statement from plaintiffs’ lawyers, would stop Rokita “from using frivolous consumer complaints as the basis for issuing subpoenas seeking confidential and sensitive medical records to continue his baseless investigation into physicians who provide abortion care.”
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
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