INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s attorney general has sued the state’s largest hospital system, claiming it violated patient privacy laws when a doctor publicly shared the story of an Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Indianapolis federal court, marked Attorney General Todd Rokita’s latest attempt to seek disciplinary legal action against Dr. Caitlin Bernard. The doctor’s account of a 10-year-old rape victim traveling to Indiana to receive abortion drugs became a flashpoint in the abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
Rokita, a Republican, is stridently anti-abortion and Indiana was the first state to approve abortion restrictions after the court’s decision. The near-total abortion ban recently took effect after legal battles.
“Neither the 10-year-old nor her mother gave the doctor authorization to speak to the media about their case,” the lawsuit stated. “Rather than protecting the patient, the hospital chose to protect the doctor, and itself.”
The lawsuit named Indiana University Health and IU Healthcare Associates. It alleged the hospital system violated HIPAA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and a state law for not protecting the patient’s information.
Indiana’s medical licensing board reprimanded Bernard in May, saying she didn’t abide by privacy laws by talking publicly about the girl’s treatment. It was far short of the medical license suspension that Rokita’s office sought.
Still, the board’s decision received widespread criticism from medical groups and others who called it a move to intimidate doctors.
Hospital system officials have argued that Bernard didn’t violate privacy laws.
“We continue to be disappointed the Indiana Attorney General’s office persists in putting the state’s limited resources toward this matter,” IU Health said in a statement. “We will respond directly to the AG’s office on the filing.”
In July, a 28-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison for the child’s rape.
Maxfunky on September 17th, 2023 at 22:10 UTC »
He doesn't have standing here. He's a state attorney general suing a hospital over a violation of a federal law (and it's a stretch that the law was violated in the first place). Meanwhile, he's not the victim and he doesn't even represent the state the victim hails from.
Pure political grandstanding using a traumatized child as a political football by a well-known-bag-of-dicks whose name I won't even repeat because that's his only purpose in perpetuating this abomination.
Civil-Dinner on September 17th, 2023 at 22:07 UTC »
The most appalling thing about this is that this AG and people who think like him are far more upset that they weren't able to force this 10 year old girl to carry her rapist's baby to term than the fact that she was raped to begin with.
The fact that they just won't stop looking for people to punish for terminating the pregnancy speaks volumes about the placement of their outrage.
Yousoggyyojimbo on September 17th, 2023 at 21:50 UTC »
This guy has been doing everything in his power to harass a child who got raped and everyone who took part in helping her afterwards.
Now, he's trying to pretend he's protecting the child by further harassing the doctor.
This is what genuine evil looks like.