Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who aborted a 10-year-old girl in Ohio, speaks out and pays the price
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who aborted a 10-year-old girl, says doctors shouldn't be silent. But she finds herself at the center of a post-Roe clash that is rocking the medical community.
Three weeks before the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Indianapolis, put on her white coat, put her baby girl in a baby carrier up front, and joined a few colleagues who walked to the US Capitol. State, hoping to deliver a letter to Governor Eric Holcomb.
Signed by hundreds of medical professionals, the letter implored Mr. Holcomb, a Republican, not to call a special legislative session to further restrict abortions. It contained a pointed political message: "Abortion bans are not popular in our state."
Dr. Bernard, who was catapulted into the national spotlight for aborting a 10-year-old rape victim last month, delivered babies and provided contraceptive care, pap smears and other routine obstetric and gynecological care. She is also one of a small number of doctors in her state with specific training in complex reproductive care, including second-trimester abortions.
But some of her the riskiest jobs take place outside his hospital, publicly advocating for access to abortion.
His outspokenness came at a cost. Dr. Bernard, 37, has been criticized in right-wing media, harassed and under investigation by the Indiana Attorney General. She landed at the center of a post-Roe clash that the medical community feared - a conflict in which doctors themselves are at the center of political and legal attacks.
"Doctors who perform abortions have been harassed, they have been murdered," Dr. Bernard said Tuesday in an interview with The New York Times. "And for too long, I think, because of that, they have had to shut up to protect their families, and it created the idea that we're doing something wrong or something illegal. And we're not. And I feel compelled to say that."
Threats against abortion providers aren't new. But Roe's reversal has created a chilling new legal landscape for doctors.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who aborted a 10-year-old girl, says doctors shouldn't be silent. But she finds herself at the center of a post-Roe clash that is rocking the medical community.
Three weeks before the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Indianapolis, put on her white coat, put her baby girl in a baby carrier up front, and joined a few colleagues who walked to the US Capitol. State, hoping to deliver a letter to Governor Eric Holcomb.
Signed by hundreds of medical professionals, the letter implored Mr. Holcomb, a Republican, not to call a special legislative session to further restrict abortions. It contained a pointed political message: "Abortion bans are not popular in our state."
Dr. Bernard, who was catapulted into the national spotlight for aborting a 10-year-old rape victim last month, delivered babies and provided contraceptive care, pap smears and other routine obstetric and gynecological care. She is also one of a small number of doctors in her state with specific training in complex reproductive care, including second-trimester abortions.
But some of her the riskiest jobs take place outside his hospital, publicly advocating for access to abortion.
His outspokenness came at a cost. Dr. Bernard, 37, has been criticized in right-wing media, harassed and under investigation by the Indiana Attorney General. She landed at the center of a post-Roe clash that the medical community feared - a conflict in which doctors themselves are at the center of political and legal attacks.
"Doctors who perform abortions have been harassed, they have been murdered," Dr. Bernard said Tuesday in an interview with The New York Times. "And for too long, I think, because of that, they have had to shut up to protect their families, and it created the idea that we're doing something wrong or something illegal. And we're not. And I feel compelled to say that."
Threats against abortion providers aren't new. But Roe's reversal has created a chilling new legal landscape for doctors.
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