State AG Drops Lawsuit Linked to 10-Year-Old's Abortion

UPDATE Aug 13, 2024 4:18 PM CDT

Indiana's attorney general has dropped a lawsuit he filed against the state's largest hospital system after a doctor told the media about a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from Ohio for an abortion in 2022. In a court filing last week, Todd Rokita said the complaint had been resolved by actions taken by IU Health, including training employees not to talk about patients in public and telling them they should contact the PR or communications department before speaking to reporters, the Indianapolis Star reports. The hospital system said the policies cited by Rokita, who is strongly anti-abortion, were already in place and it is "disheartened" to see them portrayed as "corrective" measures.

Sep 18, 2023 9:40 AM CDT

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, per the AP. 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 US 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 high 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 states. "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.

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Indiana's medical licensing board reprimanded Bernard in May, saying she didn't abide by privacy laws in speaking 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."

(More abortion stories.)