Indiana attorney general says he is investigating doctor who treated 10-year-old rape victim
Indiana Lawyer General Todd Rokita claimed he is investigating the medical professional who dealt with a 10-year-outdated rape sufferer from Ohio.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Rokita, a Republican who’s touted his initiatives to overcome abortion legal rights, referred to Dr. Caitlin Bernard as an “abortion activist acting as a health care provider” who has a “historical past of failing to report.”
“So we’re accumulating the info, we’re gathering the proof as we speak, and we are going to battle this to the end, including looking at her licensure,” Rokita said. He stated his place of work is also seeking into no matter if “she failed to report” the procedure in Indiana due to the fact “it can be a crime to not report, to deliberately not report.”
Rokita did not say whether or not there really had been any complications with the doctor’s license, or if there was any sign she had not noted the case.
Bernard’s lawyer, Kathleen DeLaney, produced a assertion Thursday after Rokita’s remarks.
“My client, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, took just about every suitable and proper action in accordance with the regulation and equally her professional medical and ethical coaching as a medical professional. She followed all appropriate procedures, treatments, and laws in this scenario, just as she does each and every day to offer the finest attainable treatment for her individuals,” DeLaney explained in a assertion.
“She has not violated any regulation, which include client privateness regulations, and she has not been disciplined by her employer. We are contemplating authorized action versus these who have smeared my shopper, which includes Indiana Legal professional Basic Todd Rokita, and know that the info will all occur out in due time,” DeLaney included.
Bernard’s employer, Indiana University Wellbeing, declined to remark on Rokita’s statements.
Bernard built international headlines earlier this month after she explained to The Indianapolis Star that she’d experienced to address a 10-year-aged rape sufferer simply because the girl couldn’t be taken care of in her native Ohio thanks to the state’s “fetal heartbeat” regulation. The regulation, which was enacted hours just after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade very last month, outlaws abortions at all-around the sixth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions for situations involving rape or incest. The girl was just around 6 months expecting, Bernard explained.
Quite a few Republican officers and appropriate-wing news shops advised that Bernard experienced made up the story after President Joe Biden spoke out about the case. “Ten yrs aged, raped, 6 weeks expecting, now traumatized, was forced to travel to an additional condition,” Biden stated very last week. “Consider staying that tiny female.”
On Wednesday, The Columbus Dispatch claimed there experienced been an arrest made in the situation. Gershon Fuentes, 27, confessed to raping the youngster, in accordance to files submitted in Franklin County, Ohio, Municipal Court. He has been billed with the rape of a minimal and faces up to a lifetime sentence and deportation. Bond was set at $2 million, and an preliminary listening to is scheduled for next week.
Columbus law enforcement learned of the girl’s pregnancy by means of a referral by child companies that was made by the girl’s mother June 22, a detective testified at a listening to in the case Wednesday morning, in accordance to the Dispatch.
The paper noted that Fuentes is not considered to be in the nation lawfully, but has been in the United States for at least 7 years.
Rokita explained to Fox the circumstance “is an illegal immigration issue simply because probably of Biden’s lawlessness at the border and anything going on down there,” in spite of Fuentes reportedly getting been in the state lengthy just before Biden even became president.
“This is a horrible, terrible scene brought on by Marxists and socialists and all those in the White Dwelling who want lawlessness at the border,” he ongoing.
“And then this woman was politicized, politicized for the get of killing more babies, all proper? That was the goal,” he said. “And this abortion activist is out there front and middle.”
