US doctor defends speaking on 10-yr-old abortion case

It’s the horrifying child abortion case that US President Joe Biden empathised with – now the doctor who provided the service is being investigated by state authorities.

After a 10-year-old child abuse victim in America travelled cross-state to receive an abortion, the doctor who conducted it is defending her right to speak up about the tragic case.

The Indiana-based obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Caitlin Bernard is at the centre of a political firestorm after speaking out about the 10-year-old girl who travelled from Ohio to get access to the medical service, NowThisNews has reported.

Pictured, people hold signs during a protest against recently passed abortion ban bills in Atlanta, Georgia. After Dr Caitlin Bernard spoke out about her 10-year-old patient’s abortion case, Indianapolis state authorities have begun investigating the doctor. Picture: Elijah Nouvelage

On Thursday (US time), Dr Bernard’s lawyer Kathleen DeLaney issued a statement maintaining that her client provided proper treatment and did not violate any patient-privacy laws when she discussed the unidentified girl’s situation.

“(Dr Bernard) took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law and both her medical and ethical training as a physician,” Ms DeLaney stated.

“She followed all relevant policies, procedures, and regulations in this case, just as she does every day to provide the best possible care for her patients.

“She has not violated any law, including patient privacy laws, and she has not been disciplined by her employer.”

A 27 year old Ohio man was charged on Wednesday with raping the young girl, after he confessed to sexually assaulting her at least twice, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

However, when the girl tried accessing abortion services after falling pregnant, she was denied treatment.

Court documents confirm that Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arraigned on July 13, 2022 on charges of rape of a person under 13. Picture: Franklin County Sheriff's Office

This comes after the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling which placed the legality and access to abortion services back to individual states.

The 10-year-old girl was then forced to travel to Indiana where she received a medication-induced abortion on June 30.

Her horrifying case first came to light when US President Biden highlighted it on the same day of the signing of an executive order aimed at protecting partial abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.

On July 1, Dr Bernard then spoke out about the case in an interview with the Indy Star.

While Dr Bernard and her lawyer Ms DeLaney maintain that the physician did not break any laws when speaking about the case, Republican Indiana Attorney-General Todd Rokita announced on Thursday that his office was investigating Bernard’s actions.

US President Joe Biden branded the conservative-majority Supreme Court as "out of control" after its landmark ruling last month that overturned the nationwide right to abortion. Mr Biden empathised with the 10-year-old girl’s plight to receive an abortion. Picture: Samuel Corum

Mr Rokita said he would investigate whether the doctor violated child abuse notification or abortion reporting laws, and whether privacy laws were broken when she spoke to media.

His office has not alleged any specific wrongdoing committed by Dr Bernard.

However, Ms DeLaney has said that she is considering taking legal action against “those who have smeared my client,” including against Mr Rokita.

When news of the 10-year-old victim’s case came to light, US media publications initially scrutinised whether the girl was actually a victim of rape, including a PJ Media conservative columnist published an article under the headline “Viral ‘pregnant 10-year-old rape victim’ abortion horror story deserves a deeper look” on July 8.

Some Republicans also initially cast doubt over whether Dr Bernard’s account of the case was real, including Ohio Attorney-General Dave Yost who told Fox News on Monday that there was not “a whisper” of evidence supporting the case’s existence.

Mr Yost has since told media that his “heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child” and has vowed to provide support to the ongoing police case.