Indiana abortion doctor Caitlin Bernard filed a lawsuit Thursday against Attorney General Todd Rokita to keep him from sending subpoenas for patients’ abortion records, especially those relating to a 10-year-old rape victim she cared for. Rokita sent subpoenas for “the entire medical file” of the child, whose story became a national political football when she was forced to cross state lines to terminate a pregnancy caused by rape. With no evidence, Rokita repeatedly bashed Bernard on Fox News, accusing her of making up the story then of not abiding by state reporting laws. In her suit, Bernard alleges his office is now issuing sweeping subpoenas to hospitals for records based on complaints from people who aren’t patients and may live out of state. Kelly Stevenson, a representative for Rokita, said their office was following its “statutory obligation” to “investigate thousands of potential licensing, privacy, and other violations a year” and a “majority of the complaints we receive are, in fact, from nonpatients.”
