President Joe Biden and numerous mainstream media outlets have touted the story of an unidentified 10-year old girl who traveled to Indiana to obtain an abortion that was illegal in her home state of Ohio.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, claimed a child abuse doctor referred to her a 10-year-old patient who was pregnant and seeking an abortion a few days past Ohio’s six week limit. The story was originally published in the Indianapolis Star, then quickly picked up by national outlets including Politico, The Washington Post, CNN, Teen Vogue, The Hill and numerous other outlets, which did not claim to have independently verified the story and in several cases simply cited previous reports.
Bernard’s account did not mention specifics such as the name of the young patient’s doctor, any of the towns where these events took place, whether charges were being pressed against the child’s alleged rapist and at what point, if at all, Bernard or the child abuse doctor contacted the authorities regarding the individual who had impregnated the 10-year-old. (RELATED: Biden Recounts How 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Had To Go Out Of State To ‘Terminate The Presidency’)
Bernard responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment but declined to offer any details to corroborate her story.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information to share,” she wrote.
The fact-checking publication Snopes was also unable to verify the incident in its July 5 investigation of the story, which noted that Bernard did not respond to the outlet’s attempts to contact her.
Bernard has worked with the media actively in the past and advocated against legal abortion limits previously in Politico, The Republic, PBS, 13WTHR and WRTV Indianapolis. The June 29 Politico article, which ran two days after Bernard claims to have received the call about a pregnant 10-year-old, makes no mention of the event.
WATCH:
President Joe Biden used the incident in a Friday speech to argue in favor of abortion exceptions for rape and incest.
The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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