Indiana
Indiana doctor who performed abortion on 10-year-old says proposed ban would ‘hurt all Hoosiers’
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the Indiana physician who drew nationwide consideration after performing an abortion on a 10-year-old rape sufferer from Ohio, says the abortion ban proposed by members of Indiana’s Republican management would “damage all Hoosiers.”
The invoice, outlined intimately on Wednesday, would ban abortion from the time an egg is implanted in a uterus.
The measure does embody sure exceptions for rape, fetal abnormalities, incest, and threat to the lifetime of the mom. Republican State Sen. Sue Glick, a sponsor of the invoice, says it might not ban the “morning after capsule” or any types of contraception, nor would it not forestall medical doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages.
In a Twitter thread shared Wednesday night, Bernard shared her stance in opposition to the invoice.
“I’ve practiced medication for 12 years. This invoice will damage my sufferers and all Hoosiers. Abortion is healthcare. Healthcare selections needs to be a matter solely between the affected person and their trusted healthcare supplier,” Bernard wrote.
She continued: “Whereas an exception is included for survivors of rape, medication isn’t a few record of ‘exceptions’ for each state of affairs conceivable. It’s about getting the care you want once you want it. So many individuals already need to journey removed from house to hunt pressing care. Now Hoosiers might face a lot worse entry with dire penalties.”
Bernard went on to say that the invoice will “strip sufferers of their potential” to depend on her and different medical doctors in a second of disaster.
Attorneys for Bernard on Tuesday took step one towards a defamation lawsuit in opposition to State Lawyer Common Todd Rokita, searching for damages for “safety prices, authorized charges, reputational hurt, and emotional misery” after Rokita introduced his workplace was investigating Bernard for potential felony {and professional} violations within the case of the rape sufferer.
The tort declare says Rokita’s “false and deceptive statements” about alleged misconduct by Bernard “represent defamation per se.”
Bernard’s authorized workforce final week despatched a cease-and-desist letter to Rokita’s workplace, asking him to cease spreading false or deceptive details about the physician.
A spokesperson for Rokita’s workplace beforehand advised Information 8 that “no false or deceptive statements have been made.”