Indiana judge won't block probe over 10-year-old's abortion

A judge ruled Friday that Indiana's Republican attorney general can investigate an Indianapolis doctor who provided an abortion to a rape victim from Ohio.

The attempt to block the probe was rejected by the judge. She ruled Friday that the state's abortion ban is in violation of the state's religious freedom law. The Vice President in 2015. The Indiana abortion ban has been on hold since mid-September as courts consider a challenge from abortion clinic operators who argue the ban is unconstitutional.

Two days after the attorney general's office asked the state medical licensing board to discipline Bernard, the judge ruled on the investigation.

Some news outlets and Republican politicians accused Bernard of faking the story after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the abortion law. The girl couldn't get an abortion in Ohio because of a more restrictive abortion law there.

Bernard filed a lawsuit against the state attorney general, accusing him of wrongly justifying the investigation withfrivolous consumer complaints. The girl's abuse had already been reported to police in Ohio, according to Bernard and her lawyers.

The judge denied Bernard's request for an injunction. Since the attorney general filed a complaint on Wednesday, the medical licensing board now has authority over the matter. The state medical licensing board was asked to imposeDisciplinary action without specifying a penalty. The board said Friday that it had received a complaint but no hearing date had been set.

The complaint was filed after Rokita made public comments about Bernard. The licensing investigations statute requires employees of the Attorney General's Office to keep confidential pending investigations until they are referred to prosecution.

Kathleen DeLaney criticized Rokita for violating his duty of confidentiality and for pushing the case to the medical board in order to take it out of the hands of the judge.

DeLaney said that they are confident in the record and testimony that they have already developed.

Protection of patient privacy rights was supported by the ruling.

The doctor and her attorneys started this media frenzy from the beginning, and it continues to draw attention to this innocent little girl who is trying to cope with a horrible trauma.

The girl in Indianapolis was given abortion drugs by Bernard because she was unable to have an abortion in another state. The United States Supreme Court's decision to end women's constitutional protections for abortion took effect in Ohio. The time when cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo is typically around the sixth week of a pregnant woman's life.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that Bernard met Indiana's required three-day reporting period for an abortion performed on a girl younger than 16.

Five residents who hold Jewish, Muslim and spiritual faiths argued that the state's abortion ban would violate their religious rights if it were put in place.

The evidence shows that thePlaintiffs do not share the State's belief that life begins at fertilization or that abortion is an intentional taking of a human life. They have different beliefs when it comes to life. These are sincere religious beliefs according to the law.

The religious freedom lawsuit ruling was not commented upon by Rokita's office.