Indiana AG: save a 10-year-old rape victim from being forced to carry a pregnancy to term and we will punish you however we can

The American anti-abortion movement is a truly vile racket:

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita apparently will not stop until he’s punished Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel from Ohio to end her pregnancy.

In his latest salvo, Rokita’s office filed a complaint asking the Indiana medical licensing board to discipline Bernard, saying she violated the law by telling a reporter that she would be treating the child in Indiana, given Ohio’s abortion ban that took effect right after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The complaint also alleges that Bernard did not properly report the abuse to state authorities. Notably, Rokita isn’t claiming she violated the law by providing the child an abortion; he’s just trying to punish her in any other way possible. The reasoning behind Rokita’s incessant work against Bernard is clear: She publicly discussed a case in which abortion was obviously, inarguably a net good and necessary to protect the girl’s life.

Bernard’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, called the move a “last-ditch effort to intimidate Dr. Bernard and other providers of abortion care.” She went on: “Though I am disappointed he has put my client in this position, we are not surprised given Mr. Rokita’s consistent efforts to use his office to seek to punish those with whom he disagrees at the expense of Indiana taxpayers.”

Providing a vital medical service to a desperate girl and making Republicans look like callous monsters — neither of these offenses can stand without more attempts at state coercion. (Remember when Republicans and their gullible media allies tried to claim that the story had to have been made up because what kind of sick fuck would force a 10-year-old to carry a pregnancy to term before they fully leaned into being exactly that kind of sick fuck?)

Meanwhile, another teenage rape victim has been forced to travel 500 miles to obtain an abortion:

The parents of a teenage Mississippi rape victim had to travel more than 500 miles to help their daughter obtain an abortion in Illinois, WAPT’s Megan West reported. The family told the local Jackson anchor that they learned their daughter was pregnant three days beyond Mississippi’s legal limit of six weeks.

The parents, whom WAPT referred to only as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” said they did not know that abortion was illegal in Mississippi or that the state’s only abortion clinic had closed until they sought help for their daughter.

“We didn’t (know) until after we was trying to find places that would (provide abortion care), and they told us that if we would’ve known about it at least three days ahead that we could’ve got an abortion in Mississippi,” John Doe said in blurred video footage WAPT aired in a Nov. 22 broadcast. The station reported that authorities have charged multiple individuals for sexual battery for the teen girl’s rape.

The “pro-life movement’s many critics” continue to be absolutely 100% bang-on correct.