Abortion in MAGAland: Cruelty is the Point

Healthcare received by a 10-year-old in 2022 is still making headlines

The role of conservative legal activist Jim Bopp Jr. in the 100% takeover of the IU Board of Trustees and the cruelty he expressed regarding a child who had been raped in 2022 has thrust her case back into the foreground.

In 2022, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana Ob/Gyn working for IU Health, received a call from a doctor in Ohio. This doctor was asking for Bernard’s help because they had a patient who desperately needed an abortion. The patient was a girl who was pregnant as a result of a rape. She had just turned 10. In Ohio, she was not eligible to receive an abortion because she was 6 weeks and 3 days pregnant. 3 days past Ohio’s ridiculous “fetal heartbeat” cutoff. Bernard accepted this patient, the girl traveled to Indiana, received the care she needed, and went home.

What followed was an intense media firestorm that is still reverberating in the Indiana court system.

This story came to light in the Indy Star in July of 2022. Dr. Bernard, in the wake of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, shared an anecdote about providing abortion care to a 10-year-old patient. Bernard was sharing this as a cautionary tale and she was devastated that very shortly after this article would come out, she would no longer be able to provide that care.

Anti-abortion activists and conservative media personalities jumped on this story, accusing the pro-choice crowd of fabricating it for their own gain. Conservative elected officials in Indiana and Ohio, including Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan publicly called this story a lie.

It was not a lie. It was a horrific true story of a child who had endured multiple traumas and who was forced to endure even more pain as a result of her government’s senseless cruelty. Her rapist admitted to raping her at least twice and was sentenced to life in prison.

Even after the story was proven to be true, none of the naysayers ever retracted their statements nor apologized for their harshness. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita leapt at the chance to further his own political ambitions, going on FOX News to publicly attack Dr. Bernard, calling her an “abortion activist acting like a doctor” and said he would try to get her medical license revoked. Jim Bopp Jr., a notorious conservative legal zealot and colleague of Rokita, spoke on behalf of the National Right to Life Committee. Bopp has served General Counsel for the organization since 1978. He said that under legislation he has drafted and is championing on behalf the the National Right to Life Committee, the abortion this girl received would not have been permitted. “We would hope that she would understand the reason, and ultimately the benefit of having the child.”

Rokita went on to be disciplined by the Indiana Supreme Court for his comments about Dr. Bernard. The public reprimand said Rokita’s violated the professional code of conduct by which Indiana attorneys are bound and that his comments “served no purpose other than to harass and publicly embarrass Dr. Bernard.” Although Rokita took responsibility for his conduct at the disciplinary hearing, immediately upon exiting that hearing, he released a statement retracting his responsibility, insisting he did nothing wrong, and accused the Indiana Supreme Court of targeting him for political reasons. Important to note that Rokita is a Republican and all five justices of Indiana’s incredibly conservative Supreme Court were appointed by Republican governors.

As a result of his public retraction and derogatory statement about the Court, new disciplinary charges have been filed against Rokita and as of June 7, 2025, those charges are still pending.

Rokita has gone even further in his quest to publicly harass healthcare providers by pushing to make terminated pregnant reports public record in the State of Indiana and he has pushed legislation that would give prosecutorial authority for all abortion-related matters to the Attorney General. Aside from a position within the Trump administration, there is nothing Rokita would love more than to spend the rest of his career suing doctors and patients for their participation in abortions.

As for Rokita’s buddy, attorney Jim Bopp Jr., he has recently been appointed to the IU Board of Trustees in a coup orchestrated by Indiana’s governor MAGA Mike Braun. In addition to being very pro-10-year-olds-being-forced-to-give-birth, Bopp also launched several lawsuits trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and drafted the original complaint in the Citizens United case.

The man who argued that “corporations are people” also believes that women and girls are not people.

The fact that Bopp now sits on the board that oversees the entire Indiana University system, including the doctor who provided a 10-year-old with healthcare Bopp wanted to ban, is quite the twist in this never ending saga.

In addition to wielding incredible power over the students and staff of Indiana University, the Board of Trustees also has power over the IU Health System.

Instilling one of the nations leading anti-abortion activists on the Board of Trustees at Indiana University is sending a powerful message to patients and personnel throughout the entire IU System.

That 10-year-old is now 13. Still just a child. I sincerely hope she knows nothing of Rokita or Bopp or Jordan and the things they said and continue to say. None of these men have issued apologies or retractions for publicly stating the story was a lie.