About a year ago, four days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, Bernard was at an abortion rights rally, talking about the girl’s case with a colleague. A reporter for the Indianapolis Star who was working on a story about the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision overheard her and asked her about it.
Without divulging any information that compromised her patient’s confidentiality, Bernard said she had received a call from a child abuse doctor in Ohio, where abortion had suddenly become illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. A youngster who was three days over the limit needed abortion care. In a sane world, a state would not force a 10-year-old to bear a child after rape, or to cross state lines for help.
Yet here we are.
The Star story caught fire. Even President Biden decried the injustice. Conservatives went wild, accusing Bernard of making the story up.
“Another lie. Anyone surprised?” brayed Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan in a tweet he later deleted.
The Republican attorney general of Ohio flatly stated on Fox News that there was
“not a whisper anywhere” of a 10-year-old being raped in his state. He was either lying or out of the loop. Two days later,
the Columbus Dispatch reported that there had been an arrest and confession in the case. Also, it turns out, the child was 9 when she was raped.
Rokita’s blatantly unprofessional behavior continued to inflame the situation. He described Bernard to Fox News as “this abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report.” In violation of state law, he publicly discussed his plan to investigate Bernard, which a judge said caused her “irreparable harm.”
The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission launched
an investigation into Rokita after the former dean of Indiana University's law school filed a complaint against him. “If he can throw the entire weight of his office without consequence to attack Dr. Bernard, he can do so to target any private citizen with whom he disagrees,” wrote Lauren Robel, the former dean. “This is the opposite of the rule of law.”
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It is true.
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The man was arraigned in Ohio. The case has led to national attention in the abortion debate following the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade.
www.dispatch.com