Indiana attorney general says he is investigating doctor who treated 10-year-old rape victim

Indiana Attorney Common Todd Rokita stated he is investigating the doctor who treated a 10-year-old rape sufferer from Ohio.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Rokita, a Republican who’s touted his endeavours to fight abortion rights, referred to Dr. Caitlin Bernard as an “abortion activist performing as a health care provider” who has a “historical past of failing to report.”

“So we’re gathering the data, we are collecting the proof as we speak, and we are going to fight this to the close, together with looking at her licensure,” Rokita mentioned. He explained his business is also hunting into whether “she unsuccessful to report” the course of action in Indiana mainly because “it really is a crime to not report, to deliberately not report.”

Rokita did not say whether or not there essentially were any complications with the doctor’s license, or if there was any sign she had not reported the situation.

Bernard’s lawyer, Kathleen DeLaney, launched a assertion Thursday after Rokita’s remarks.

“My client, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, took every appropriate and good action in accordance with the legislation and both her health care and moral education as a doctor. She followed all relevant insurance policies, strategies, and laws in this situation, just as she does each and every day to offer the finest probable treatment for her people,” DeLaney said in a assertion.

“She has not violated any regulation, which includes affected person privacy rules, and she has not been disciplined by her employer. We are considering legal action from individuals who have smeared my shopper, like Indiana Attorney Common Todd Rokita, and know that the points will all come out in because of time,” DeLaney added.

Bernard’s employer, Indiana University Well being, declined to comment on Rokita’s statements.

Bernard made intercontinental headlines earlier this month after she instructed The Indianapolis Star that she’d had to take care of a 10-yr-outdated rape target due to the fact the girl could not be taken care of in her indigenous Ohio many thanks to the state’s “fetal heartbeat” regulation. The legislation, which was enacted several hours soon after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade last thirty day period, outlaws abortions at close to the sixth 7 days of pregnancy, with no exceptions for cases involving rape or incest. The girl was just about 6 weeks expecting, Bernard mentioned.

Various Republican officials and correct-wing news shops proposed that Bernard had created up the story immediately after President Joe Biden spoke out about the situation. “Ten yrs previous, raped, 6 months expecting, previously traumatized, was pressured to travel to an additional point out,” Biden explained final 7 days. “Consider staying that small lady.”

On Wednesday, The Columbus Dispatch documented there experienced been an arrest made in the situation. Gershon Fuentes, 27, confessed to raping the youngster, according to files submitted in Franklin County, Ohio, Municipal Courtroom. He has been charged with the rape of a minimal and faces up to a lifetime sentence and deportation. Bond was set at $2 million, and an initial listening to is scheduled for following 7 days.

Columbus law enforcement learned of the girl’s pregnancy through a referral by child companies that was made by the girl’s mother June 22, a detective testified at a listening to in the situation Wednesday morning, according to the Dispatch.

The paper reported that Fuentes is not considered to be in the country legally, but has been in the United States for at the very least 7 several years.

Rokita advised Fox the scenario “is an unlawful immigration concern mainly because probably of Biden’s lawlessness at the border and all the things going on down there,” regardless of Fuentes reportedly getting been in the place extended prior to Biden even grew to become president.

“This is a awful, terrible scene prompted by Marxists and socialists and those in the White Property who want lawlessness at the border,” he continued.

“And then this lady was politicized, politicized for the get of killing a lot more infants, all ideal? That was the purpose,” he explained. “And this abortion activist is out there front and center.”