Abortion doctor sues Indiana AG over bids to access records
An Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio is suing Indiana’s attorney general, seeking to block him from using allegedly “frivolous” consumer complaints to issue subpoenas seeking patients’ confidential medical records
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio is suing Indiana's attorney general, seeking to block him from using allegedly “frivolous" consumer complaints to issue subpoenas seeking patients' confidential medical records.
The lawsuit targeting Attorney General Todd Rokita was filed Thursday in Marion County on behalf of Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, her medical partner, Dr. Amy Caldwell, and their patients.
It alleges that Rokita has issued subpoenas seeking the medical records of patients based on complaints from people who have never been a patient of either Bernard or Caldwell and “who lack any personal knowledge of the alleged circumstances giving rise to the complaints."
The suit contends that Rokita has “completely ignored" a state requirement that his office first determine that consumer complaints have “merit" before he can investigate physicians and other licensed professionals and that his conduct “violates numerous Indiana statutes."
