Op/Ed: Dr. Caitlin Bernard right to protect privacy of 10-year-old rape victim
As the battle to control the emerging narrative of a post-Dobbs United States takes hold, some conservatives are finding a new low. Fox News recently called into question the account of Hoosier obstetrician, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who was contacted by a colleague in Ohio to provide an abortion for a 10-year-old who had been raped. Within hours of the Dobbs decision, Ohio’s attorney general sought and was granted an order vacating an injunction on a preexisting “heart-beat abortion ban” in Ohio. As Attorney General Yost gleefully tweeted on June 24, “The Heartbeat Bill is now the law.” The pediatric patient was six weeks and three days pregnant exceeding the period of time when heart activity can generally be observed on ultrasound.
That story was subsequently picked up by multiple news outlets and further cited by President Joe Biden in his remarks on the tragic consequences of the Dobbs decision. However, conservatives responded by demanding “proof” that the child even exists. They eventually got it, when Columbus, Ohio, police announced they had arrested Gerson Fuentes for the rape. However, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has now suggested an “investigation” will be launched by his office into Bernard.
The initial demands by some media and conservatives (including the Ohio attorney general) that Bernard disclose additional information about her patient were disingenuous. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits physicians from disclosing information that personally identifies a patient. Bernard has been consistent and thoughtful in refusing to disclose information that might result in the little girl’s identity becoming public knowledge. But this did not stop conservative abortion opponents from trying.
Although Fox News and its social media vigilantes claimed to be seeking corroboration of Bernard’s account, a close reading reveals a much darker strategy that amounts to a conservative attempt to dox a fifth grader who had been raped.
Apparently, Fox and others sought to do the work Bernard rightly would not do for them by attempting to match public records of reports of sexual assault in Ohio with the time period of the abortion so as to identify the child at the center of this. Unable to do this (likely because there were too many children who were victims of sexual assault in Ohio at this time — some 13 children are sexually assaulted every day in Ohio), these self-appointed seekers of truth appeared to be systematically contacting police precincts in Ohio attempting to identify the young girl.
Now, they further quibble over whether Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” actually would have prohibited the abortion this child ultimately sought in Indiana. This naturally ignores that the frenetically changing legal landscape following Dobbs has not only resulted in actual bans but also has caused considerable physician uncertainty as to what they are permitted to do literally from day to day.
In addition to the strategic targeting of this child, abortion opponents also targeted the journalist who first broke the story, harassing her on Twitter, questioning her credentials and demanding to know why her report of a first-person account by the person who performed the actual abortion was not “verified.” In the absence of such “verification,” they demand the story be formally retracted. Now that the story is presumably corroborated by the arrest of Fuentes, they have changed tactics to “investigate” Bernard’s compliance with mandatory reporting requirements for physicians. I suppose it is too much to hope that Fox News will issue its own formal retraction of its demand that IndyStar formally retract the original story.
Understand what is happening here. This is not an attempt to protect journalistic integrity or a pursuit of truth. This is an attempt to chill speech. Storytelling is and has long been a powerful tool of change and the stories of women and children who are harmed by abortion restrictions are only going to become more frequent. Making it difficult or dangerous to tell those stories is one way to limit public knowledge of and outcry about the consequences of draconian abortion restrictions. In attempting to expose the identity of a 10-year-old who was raped, calling into question the credibility of the physician who cared for her and harassing the journalist who reported on it, Fox and their henchmen seek to discourage the public exchange of information — through stories — about what is happening in hospitals around the country in the aftermath of Dobbs. We must recognize this for what it is and reject it. We must listen to those on the front lines of this new dystopia and tell their stories.
Jane A. Hartsock has a juris doctor degree and a Master of Arts in philosophy and is a bioethicist in Indiana and a staunch supporter of women’s access to evidence-based reproductive health care.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Dr. Caitlin Bernard right to protect 10-year-old rape victim
