Indiana doctor drops lawsuit against attorney general

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana doctor has dropped a lawsuit that aimed to halt the state's attorney general from investigating her after she provided an abortion to a 10-year-old Ohio child who was raped.

Lawyers for Dr. Caitlin Bernard of Indianapolis voluntarily nixed the lawsuit filed last month against Indiana Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, according to court filings Thursday. The lawsuit argued Rokita’s office was wrongly justifying the investigation with “frivolous” consumer complaints submitted by people with no personal knowledge about the girl’s treatment.

Marion County Judge Heather Welch ruled that Rokita could continue investigating Bernard, a decision that came two days after the attorney general asked the state medical licensing board to discipline the doctor. Rokita alleged Bernard violated state law by not reporting the girl’s child abuse to Indiana authorities and broke patient privacy laws by telling an Indianapolis Star reporter about the girl’s treatment.

But Welch also ruled Dec. 2 that Rokita wrongly made public comments about investigating Bernard before he filed the complaint with the medical board. The judge wrote Rokita’s statements “are clearly unlawful breaches of the licensing investigations statute’s requirement that employees of the Attorney General’s Office maintain confidentiality over pending investigations until they are so referred to prosecution.”

After the newspaper cited that case in a July 1 article about patients heading to Indiana for abortions because of more restrictive laws elsewhere, Rokita told Fox News that he would investigate Bernard’s actions, calling her an “abortion activist acting as a doctor.”

Bernard's attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, has maintained the girl’s abuse was been reported to Ohio police and...