Abortion Docs Say 10 Year-Old Pregnant Girl is One of ‘An Insane Amount of Requests’ for Abortions From States with Bans

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 08: A group of girls make posters during an abortion-rights Mothers Day demonstration outside the U.S. Supreme Court on May 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. The building, currently surrounded by a temporary fence, has been the site of abortion-rights and anti-abortion activist demonstrations since the leaked draft of the Court’s potential decision to overturn Roe v. Wade nearly one week ago. (Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

Dr. Caitlin Bernard said that a pregnant 10-year-old girl — referred to her by a child abuse doctor — is one of a crush of patients seeking abortions from states that have banned the procedure.

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, has thrown women’s health care into chaos as so-called “trigger laws” and other bans on abortion care have gone, or will go, into effect around the country.

At least one ten-year-old girl has been caught up in the maelstrom, according to Dr. Bernard. She told Shari Rudavsky and Rachel Fradette of The Indianapolis Star about her patient from the neighboring state of Ohio:

On Monday three days after the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio.

Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant.

Could Bernard help?

Indiana lawmakers are poised to further restrict or ban abortion in mere weeks. The Indiana General Assembly will convene in a special session July 25 when it will discuss restrictions to abortion policy along with inflation relief.

But for now, the procedure still is legal here. And so the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard’s care.

Another ob-gyn, Dr. Katie McHugh, told the pair that clinics she works at have fielded “an insane amount of requests” for care from states with abortion bans.

Those are the sorts of scenarios that President Joe Biden had in mind when he warned that things will quickly get worse.

At a White House event Friday, the president said that “people are going to be shocked when the first state, the first state that tries to arrest a woman for crossing a state line to get health services.”

“And I don’t, I don’t think people believe that’s going to happen. But it’s going to happen! And it’s going to, it’s going to telegraph to the whole country that this is this is a gigantic deal that goes beyond — I mean, it affects all your basic rights,” the president said.