INDIANAPOLIS (AP) 鈥� An Indiana judge on Friday rejected an attempt to block the state鈥檚 Republican attorney general from continuing his office鈥檚 investigation of an Indianapolis doctor who has who traveled from Ohio after its more-restrictive abortion law took effect.
The ruling comes two days after the attorney general's office , alleging she violated state law by not reporting the girl鈥檚 child abuse to Indiana authorities and broke patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl鈥檚 treatment.
That account in the weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, with some news outlets and Republican politicians suggesting Bernard fabricated the story and President Joe Biden nearly shouting his outrage over the case during a White House event.
Bernard filed a lawsuit against state Attorney General Todd Rokita last month, arguing his office was wrongly justifying the investigation with 鈥渇rivolous鈥� consumer complaints submitted by people with no personal knowledge about the girl鈥檚 treatment. Bernard and her lawyers maintain the girl鈥檚 abuse had already been before the doctor ever saw the child.
Marion County Judge Heather Welch turned down Bernard's request for an injunction blocking the investigation, saying the medical licensing board now had jurisdiction over the matter since the attorney general filed the complaint on Wednesday.
Welch, however, found that Rokita wrongly made public comments about investigating Bernard before the complaint was filed. Welch wrote that Rokita鈥檚 statements 鈥渁re clearly unlawful breaches of the licensing investigations statute鈥檚 requirement that employees of the Attorney General鈥檚 Office maintain confidentiality over pending investigations until they are so referred to prosecution.鈥�
Bernard's lawyers did not immediately comment on Friday's ruling.
Tom Davies, The Associated Press
