{"id":296764,"date":"2023-08-20T09:02:37","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T14:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=296764"},"modified":"2023-08-18T14:45:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T19:45:59","slug":"group-award-abortionist-exploited-rape-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/group-award-abortionist-exploited-rape-survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"Group tries to award abortionist who exploited rape survivor, gets shut down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Approximately 60 women were nominated for Indiana\u2019s Torchbearer awards, which recognizes women who are \u201ctrue beacons of light,\u201d according to <\/span>The Independent<\/span><\/a>. Despite this, Dr. Caitlin Bernard \u2014 the abortionist who went public to media about her 10-year-old rape survivor patient before she reported the rape \u2014 was chosen as one of six winners by the judges. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the Indiana Commission for Women did not approve her for the award, according to The Indianapolis Star.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No explanation was immediately given as to why Bernard was \u201cnot approved\u201d as a winner, but the Indiana Civil Rights Commission later told the IndyStar that it was due to Bernard\u2019s reprimanding from the state Medical Licensing Board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reviewing the backgrounds and supporting documentation of the nominations provided by the council of judges, it was determined that Dr Bernard\u2019s nomination was not appropriate due to her ongoing case with the Medical Licensing Board,\u201d said Stephanie Sloan, deputy director of internal and external programming at the Indiana Civil Rights Commission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>IndyStar<\/span><\/a> wrote, \u201cThe council of judges who selected Bernard \u2013 former Torchbearers themselves \u2013 saw a woman who took a stand for reproductive health care and withstood threats, national vitriol and state persecution. That state, though, clearly faced the optics of giving an award to a doctor with whom officials have spend the last year in a legal battle, and who has become a face of the abortion rights movement as Indiana outlawed most abortions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In July of 2022, just days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade<\/em>, Bernard <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> to the media that she had committed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl, a survivor of rape who had reportedly been blocked from undergoing an abortion in her home state of Ohio, despite the fact that it was actually for her to obtain one there. <\/span><\/p>\n

The girl had the abortion on June 30 and at 5:00 a.m. on July 1, the very next day<\/em>, The Indianapolis Star had already published the girl\u2019s story<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, Bernard had gone to the media immediately, but didn\u2019t report the rape until July 2 \u2013 falsely claiming the rapist was 17, instead of his actual age \u2014 27. It appeared that Bernard’s priority, therefore, was alerting the media and exploiting this girl’s tragedy in order to promote abortion on demand \u2014 not putting a rapist in jail or protecting a young girl.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n