Source: WISH-TV/Lindsay Haake, Onward Upward Strategies) / WISH-TV/Lindsay Haake, Onward Upward Strategies)
STATEWIDE — You may have heard Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita call for abortion records to be made public. His opponent says absolutely not.
In an opinion issued Thursday, Attorney General Rokita, a Republican who recently filed for re-election, said “terminated pregnancy records” should be made public to make sure people performing abortions are following Indiana laws. It would also allow people to file complaints against doctors.
However, Democrat candidate Destiny Wells says there’s no excuse for breaching patient confidentiality.
“Terminated pregnancy reports have personal health information in them,” Wells tells WIBC, “I side with the opinion of the Public Access Counselor Luke Britt in that we have so few abortions happening now in Indiana that you can use those reports and glean information.”
Wells, a former deputy attorney general and veteran, says Indiana’s healthcare field is already hurting due to Rokita’s actions dating back to the United States Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. It was during that time in which Dr. Caitlin Bernard of Indianapolis performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio. The girl came to Indiana because Ohio immediately enacted strict abortion laws.
Indiana had yet to do so, but a special session of the General Assembly would later make abortion illegal except in the cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger.
The entire case became national news, making its way to President Joe Biden. Dr. Bernard was eventually punished for talking about the abortion with a news reporter. Rokita has also been criticized for his conduct since then.
Wells says Rokita’s actions have driven doctors away from Indiana, and that would continue if Indiana ever allowed abortion records to be accessible to the public.
“It really goes to using scare tactics of scaring doctors out of providing care,” Wells continues, “which we have seen out of Rokita’s office since the beginning of this conversation.”
Destiny Wells says if she defeats Rokita for the attorney general’s seat, she will restore professionalism to the office and stop wasting time politicking across Indiana.
“I would not be using the office to go after our medical providers,” says Wells.
