INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana board decided Thursday night to reprimand an Indianapolis doctor after finding that she violated patient privacy laws by talking publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio.
The state Medical Licensing Board voted that Dr. Caitlin Bernard didn’t abide by privacy laws when she told a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment in a case that became a flashpoint in the national abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
The board, however, rejected accusations from Indiana’s Republican attorney general that Bernard violated state law by not reporting the child abuse to Indiana authorities. Board members chose to fine Bernard $3,000 for the violations, turning down a request from the attorney general’s office to suspend Bernard’s license. The board issued no restrictions on her practice of medicine.
Doctor Bernard said she did not believe she would be facing the licensing board if the attorney general “had not chosen to make this his political stunt.”
Bernard made headlines last year after she told the Indianapolis Star that she was contacted by a child abuse doctor in Ohio about a pregnant 10-year-old who was seeking an abortion outside of Ohio due to the state’s abortion law, which bans the procedure once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy.
Bernard said in an interview with “CBS Evening News” that she couldn’t confirm she provided the abortion, but state records confirmed she provided a medication-induced abortion to the 10-year-old on June 30, just days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
As stated in the articles, Doctor Bernard was fined $3000.
