Republican AG says he'll investigate Indiana doctor who provided care to 10-year-old rape victim

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

DSCC Right Now: "Hitting them on this would be too aggressive"

[Del Tachi]

Report the abuse. Not the abortion.

Had to read Alfie's post before coming up with this one, eh?

If there's a legal reporting requirement on providers who provide abortion in cases of rape/incest, then it should be enforced.

Immoral laws should not be enforced.

What is immoral about requiring abortions performed in cases of rape/incest be reported?

Why should an abortion be reported to the government?

Only in cases of rape/incest, and especially when we're talking about children.  Doctors have a responsibility to report suspected child abuse to the proper authorities. 

Absolutely they do

But why should abortions be reported to the state? (making the non reporting of one an offence)

What benefit is there in reporting the abuse, but filling a separate or additional report if there's a pregnancy or termination?

Why does the state need to know this?

The relevant IN law requires medical providers report suspected child abuse.  There is no record of the abortionist in this case initating such a report, which is reason to open an investigation.

Even if the 10-year old girl is a resident of OH, the reporting requirement still applies to the IN provider who treated her.  The IN authorities who received the report would be responsible for passing any actionable information back to OH law enforcement. 

Secondly, there is more potential for intimidation and coercion in cases involving minors because they cannot provide meaningfully informed consent.  A universal abortion reporting requirement that would apply to minors (or at least those younger than 16, or even 13 - but definitely including age 10) is valid for this reason.     

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

The gall of debating whether a 10-year-old girl can provide “meaningfully informed consent” to an abortion is so sickening I can’t even describe it. Do you think she’s able to give meaningfully informed consent to having a baby?

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1547706187361107970

[Del Tachi]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1547582267291082752

Not unexpected either.

Yeah dude, it's totally not unexpected because the abortion provider in this case went on record in the original reporting by The Indianapolis Star.  Her name and likeness have been associated with this story since the very beginning.  There's no malicious "doxxing" to see here, but nice try attempting to spin the facts of this case (and attracting the usual suspects to pile on your "rec" button!)   

[Del Tachi]

The gall of debating whether a 10-year-old girl can provide “meaningfully informed consent” to an abortion is so sickening I can’t even describe it. Do you think she’s able to give meaningfully informed consent to having a baby?

Facts matter.  You don't "provide consent" to have a baby, do you?

Abortion is a medical procedure that carries certain risks like any other.  The procedure is very medically invasive compared to the type of care a healthy 10-year old would typically be receiving.  Making sure the adults charged with affecting this decision are acting in the best interest of the child is an appropriate role for the state to play.

FWIW, I also believe this cuts in the opposite direction.  It would be acceptable for courts to order minor children receive medically induced abortions in cases where it is deemed in their best interest but the parents/legal guardians would not consent to the procedure.   

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1547706187361107970

Every time a Republican office holder opens their mouth to move on to their next lie, that new lie gets refuted too. Huh. Who’d’ve thunk?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

The gall of debating whether a 10-year-old girl can provide “meaningfully informed consent” to an abortion is so sickening I can’t even describe it. Do you think she’s able to give meaningfully informed consent to having a baby?

Facts matter.  You don't "provide consent" to have a baby, do you?

Abortion is a medical procedure that carries certain risks like any other.  The procedure is very medically invasive compared to the type of care a healthy 10-year old would typically be receiving.  Making sure the adults charged with affecting this decision are acting in the best interest of the child is an appropriate role for the state to play.

FWIW, I also believe this cuts in the opposite direction.  It would be acceptable for courts to order minor children receive medically induced abortions in cases where it is deemed in their best interest but the parents/legal guardians would not consent to the procedure.   

You know what else carries risks? Childbirth. For a ten-year-old girl. Why don’t you focus on that instead of pathetically trying to salvage what’s left of your dignity?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Let's be very clear about what's happening here.

The Republican Party is putting a target on this woman's back.  They know perfectly well that she is going to be the target of violent, hateful rhetoric, threats to her life, perhaps even real-life violence, as a result of this huge spotlight they're shining on her.  And that is the goal.

They want to punish her for humiliating them by giving this poor girl an abortion -- a case that has proven to be incredibly embarrassing for the party by exposing just how f--ked up its ideology truly is.

No reasonable person can defend forcing a ten-year-old rape victim to put her own life at risk giving birth to her rapist's child.  Republicans tried for a minute there, and it didn't work.  So then they tried to muddy the waters by claiming this whole thing was a hoax.  But that's now proven false as well.  So they have nothing left but to take the L.

And they're mad.  So they're going to lash out.  They can't lash out at the ten-year-old girl, so the only person they can lash out at is her doctor.

We've seen where this goes.  We all remember Fox News plastering "Tiller the Killer" all over their chyrons night after night, and having their late-night hosts tell viewers he was a bloodthirsty monster who needed to be in prison, and that "someone needs to do something" about him.  We know what Fox was able to achieve with that effort -- convincing some right-wing extremist to murder Tiller in his church.

The Republican Party knows exactly what it's doing here, and it's intentional.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Here's a non-paywalled version:

https://twitter.com/nbc4i/status/1547722119147966466

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

And the thing is we all knew this was going to happen! This is the natural consequence of the restrictive abortion laws Republicans support.

[GeneralMacArthur]

And the thing is we all knew this was going to happen! This is the natural consequence of the restrictive abortion laws Republicans support.

Yeah I mean we've been saying for 50 years "if you overturn Roe v. Wade, this is what will happen" and Republicans just said ABORTION IS MURDER over and over and over, and now they've overturned Roe v. Wade, and exactly what we said would happen, is happening, and people are absolutely horrified by it and overwhelmingly oppose what Republicans have done, and Republicans are desperately flailing around for literally any excuse or distraction.

It's so frustrating.  Republicans have been talking about late-term abortion for decades, and for decades Democrats have been saying that 93% of all abortions are in the first ten weeks, and only 1% are late-term and they're pretty much always for severe medical problems.  But nobody wanted to listen.  America just kept ignoring us and voting for Republicans based on these lies.  Now the Republicans finally overturn Roe v. Wade, and Americans are finally "learning" what we've been telling them for decades.  Wait, all this time only 1% of abortions were late-term?  Wait, overturning Roe v. Wade means you can't get an abortion even if you're only two weeks pregnant and were raped?  Wait, women can actually die from pregnancy, and abortion is the only way to save their lives?  Yes, you idiots, what's what we've been telling you for years!

[Ferguson97]

DSCC Right Now: "Hitting them on this would be too aggressive"

It's not "too aggressive" against the Republicans - they deserve far worse - but it is extremely crass and offensive to the 10-year-old girl to use her story as a campaign point.

[Del Tachi]

The gall of debating whether a 10-year-old girl can provide “meaningfully informed consent” to an abortion is so sickening I can’t even describe it. Do you think she’s able to give meaningfully informed consent to having a baby?

Facts matter.  You don't "provide consent" to have a baby, do you?

Abortion is a medical procedure that carries certain risks like any other.  The procedure is very medically invasive compared to the type of care a healthy 10-year old would typically be receiving.  Making sure the adults charged with affecting this decision are acting in the best interest of the child is an appropriate role for the state to play.

FWIW, I also believe this cuts in the opposite direction.  It would be acceptable for courts to order minor children receive medically induced abortions in cases where it is deemed in their best interest but the parents/legal guardians would not consent to the procedure.   

You know what else carries risks? Childbirth. For a ten-year-old girl. Why don’t you focus on that instead of pathetically trying to salvage what’s left of your dignity?

Yes, which is why I said courts should be able to waive parental consent laws for minors at risk.  Being 10 years old would almost certainly qualify for a reason to order an abortion over the objections of the parents. 

[SnowLabrador]

This is stochastic terrorism on the part of Fox News. The fact that the GOP is about to be voted back into power, even after all of this, is sickening.

[DrScholl]

Has Fox News shown the name and the picture of the rapist? Of course not. There shouldn't even be any debate over this horrible story, but Republicans have become so extreme that even the most disgusting crimes are minimized for political reasons.

Would it change your guess over whether Fox News has shown his name and picture if I tell you the suspect is an illegal immigrant?

Playing question and answer with me doesn't excuse the lack of concern conservatives have over rape.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

DSCC Right Now: "Hitting them on this would be too aggressive"

It's not "too aggressive" against the Republicans - they deserve far worse - but it is extremely crass and offensive to the 10-year-old girl to use her story as a campaign point.

Oh I know. I'm just saying they won't use it.

[Yoda]

Report the abuse. Not the abortion.

Had to read Alfie's post before coming up with this one, eh?

If there's a legal reporting requirement on providers who provide abortion in cases of rape/incest, then it should be enforced.

Immoral laws should not be enforced.

What is immoral about requiring abortions performed in cases of rape/incest be reported?

Why should an abortion be reported to the government?

Only in cases of rape/incest, and especially when we're talking about children.  Doctors have a responsibility to report suspected child abuse to the proper authorities. 

Absolutely they do

But why should abortions be reported to the state? (making the non reporting of one an offence)

What benefit is there in reporting the abuse, but filling a separate or additional report if there's a pregnancy or termination?

Why does the state need to know this?

The relevant IN law requires medical providers report suspected child abuse.  There is no record of the abortionist in this case initating such a report, which is reason to open an investigation.

Even if the 10-year old girl is a resident of OH, the reporting requirement still applies to the IN provider who treated her.  The IN authorities who received the report would be responsible for passing any actionable information back to OH law enforcement. 

Secondly, there is more potential for intimidation and coercion in cases involving minors because they cannot provide meaningfully informed consent.  A universal abortion reporting requirement that would apply to minors (or at least those younger than 16, or even 13 - but definitely including age 10) is valid for this reason.     

The rape was reported to Ohio police 2 months ago. It's a fairly easy assumption that the provider asked if the abuse had been reported already, the victim's family said yes and provided info to confirm that.

[T'Chenka]

LMFAO

Your hero, the guy you voted for and still have under your avatar, made this possible.

How you're registered is irrelevant.

Trump has paid women to have abortions. I don't think he personally cares about the issue.

Trump knows rich people can travel anywhere else on the planet possible to have an abortion, so he doesn't care about how it f__s over non-rich people.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

LMFAO

Your hero, the guy you voted for and still have under your avatar, made this possible.

How you're registered is irrelevant.

Trump has paid women to have abortions. I don't think he personally cares about the issue.

Trump knows rich people can travel anywhere else on the planet possible to have an abortion, so he doesn't care about how it f__s over non-rich people.

It's well-established Trump really cares only about himself and his family. That's it.
He cares about some policy areas, but these are few and not at all numerous. He doesn't care for policy.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

-snip-

No reasonable person can defend forcing a ten-year-old rape victim to put her own life at risk giving birth to her rapist's child.  Republicans tried for a minute there, and it didn't work.  So then they tried to muddy the waters by claiming this whole thing was a hoax.  But that's now proven false as well.  So they have nothing left but to take the L.

-snip-

Yes, no reasonable person could possibly defend that. However, most vocal supporters of this kind of brain-dead approach are not reasonable. At the same time, you have a lot of reasonable people who still vote republican. I wonder what has to happen for them to think that the religious right went too far. When do they snap and basically send the GOP to Valhalla? Because that seems inevitable to me. One question still remains: how much damage will they manage to inflict before that?

[T0rM3nTeD]

LMFAO

Your hero, the guy you voted for and still have under your avatar, made this possible.

How you're registered is irrelevant.

Trump has paid women to have abortions. I don't think he personally cares about the issue.

Trump knows rich people can travel anywhere else on the planet possible to have an abortion, so he doesn't care about how it f__s over non-rich people.

It's well-established Trump really cares only about himself and his family. That's it.
He cares about some policy areas, but these are few and not at all numerous. He doesn't care for policy.

Is it well-established he cares about his family? I never got that impression (other than REALLLY REALLY caring for Ivanka of course).

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

LMFAO

Your hero, the guy you voted for and still have under your avatar, made this possible.

How you're registered is irrelevant.

Trump has paid women to have abortions. I don't think he personally cares about the issue.

Trump knows rich people can travel anywhere else on the planet possible to have an abortion, so he doesn't care about how it f__s over non-rich people.

It's well-established Trump really cares only about himself and his family. That's it.
He cares about some policy areas, but these are few and not at all numerous. He doesn't care for policy.

Is it well-established he cares about his family? I never got that impression (other than REALLLY REALLY caring for Ivanka of course).

His children are partners in his business and get supported out of his pocketbook and given opportunity by him. This makes sense from both a pragmatic POV and a "principled" one. After all, his kids are his progeny...they will inherit his business when he leaves the picture. Even if he didn't want to care about them, he would have to...

[emailking]

The doctor sent a cease and desist letter to the AG, says she reported it within the required timeframe.