An abortion doctor in Indiana is under investigation for allegedly failing to report that she performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl who crossed state lines to have the procedure after she was raped and impregnated by an illegal immigrant.
During an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said his office is investigating whether Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Caitlan Bernard reported the child's abortion to the proper authorities as mandated by law.
"If she failed to report it in Indiana, it's a crime for — to not report, to intentionally not report," Rokita told Fox News host Jesse Watters.
"This is a child, and there's a strong public interest in understanding if someone under the age of 16 or under the age of 18 or really any woman is having [an] abortion in our state. And then, if a child is being sexually abused, of course, parents need to know. Authorities need to know. Public policy experts need to know."
Bernard's employer, Indiana University Health, recently filed a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) complaint against her for breaking the story of the 10-year-old girl to the news media, Fox News reports. HIPPA seeks "to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient's consent or knowledge."
As reported by The Christian Post, the news made headlines earlier this month when the Indianapolis Star published a story on the child's abortion. Bernard told the outlet that a child abuse doctor in Ohio called her three days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, setting Ohio's trigger law into motion.
Although Ohio's trigger law bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost argued that the girl would have been allowed to terminate her pregnancy since the state's abortion law makes exceptions for medical emergencies.
On Wednesday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that a Columbus man was arrested and charged with rape, a first-degree felony in Ohio. The man, identified as Gershon Fuentes, was arrested after confessing he raped the girl at least twice.
As reported by Fox News, an unnamed source with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement noted that Fuentes entered the U.S. illegally from Guatemala.
On June 22, the girl's mother filed a report through Franklin County Children Services informing Columbus police of the victim's pregnancy. During Fuentes' arraignment on Wednesday, Detective Jeffrey Huhn revealed that the young girl received a chemical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30.
According to state law, abortions for girls under the age of 16 must be reported to the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Department of Child Services within three days of the abortion.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Pornpak Khunatorn
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
