Indiana doctor: AG shouldn't get abortion patient records

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Lawyers for an Indianapolis doctor who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio told a judge Friday that Indiana’s attorney general should not be allowed to access patient medical records for an investigation into undisclosed complaints.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard; her medical partner, Dr. Amy Caldwell; and their patients sued Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita on Nov. 3 to try to stop him from accessing the records. The doctors claim Rokita's conduct “violates numerous Indiana statutes,” including a state requirement that his office first determine consumer complaints have “merit” before he can investigate physicians and other licensed professionals.

The state argued it is allowed to access the records to investigate three consumer complaints that accuse Bernard of improper care.

“The consumer complaints were 100% filed by people who had never met Dr. Bernard, had never gotten medical care from Dr. Bernard, were not involved in the care of this patient in any way shape or form,” attorney Kathleen Delaney refuted in a press conference after the hearing. “They’re complaining about something that they saw on television or heard about on social media.”

Bernard first received national attention after she told The Indianapolis Star about a 10-year-old girl who traveled to Indiana from Ohio for an abortion in June, shortly after Ohio’s “fetal heartbeat” law took effect following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Such laws ban abortions from the time cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which is typically around the sixth week of pregnancy.

Rokita told Fox News in July that he would look into whether Bernard violated child abuse notification or abortion reporting laws. He offered no specific allegations...