The doctor at the forefront of a national battle over abortion rights on Tuesday took a step toward suing Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita for defamation — saying that his public threat to criminally prosecute her after she provided an abortion for a 10-year-old girl from Ohio was “false and misleading.”
Caitlin Bernard — the Indiana OB-GYN who performed the abortion on the young rape survivor — claims Rokita made statements in media appearances and press releases that he “recklessly and/or negligently failed to ascertain” were true, including suggesting without evidence that Bernard violated the patient’s HIPAA privacy rights and failed to file the proper paperwork required after treating a minor.
The new notice of a tort claim triggers a 90-day period where the state is in charge of investigating the situation. After that, depending on what they find, a lawsuit can be filed.
Rokita’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, the Republican attorney general issued a statement saying his office is investigating Bernard, specifically whether she reported the abortion to the departments of health and child services within the required three-day time window.
The threat of prosecution came just three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and highlighted how local authorities could hijack the national conversation by targeting physicians.
In a statement that remains on his website — even after media outlets including POLITICO obtained records that showed she did report the abortion — Rokita warned: “The failure to do so constitutes a crime in Indiana, and her behavior could also affect her licensure.”
Bernard’s legal filing doesn’t specify an amount she’ll be demanding from the state, but it says she “intends to seek damages for security costs, legal fees, reputational harm, and emotional distress.”
Bernard’s spokesperson Kendra Barkoff told POLITICO that her client has experienced “personal and dangerous threats” against her and her family since Rokita publicly accused her of wrongdoing.
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