Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has dropped a lawsuit against Indiana University Health, the latest chapter in a two-year battle over an abortion performed on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio.

Rokita sued IU Health last September on behalf of the state, accusing the health system of lax enforcement of its responsibilities under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The suit came three months after the Medical Licensing Board fined IU OB-GYN Caitlin Bernard, MD, $3,000 for discussing the broad outline of the case with the Indianapolis Star. The board rejected Rokita’s claim that Dr. Bernard had failed to report suspected child abuse and rejected the attorney general’s request to revoke her license.

A federal judge dismissed the case against IU last month, ruling that even if the contention that Dr. Bernard violated HIPAA was proved, the state had failed to establish evidence of a systematic neglect of HIPAA requirements. 

The court allowed Rokita to submit a revised complaint, which he did. However, 16 days later, the attorney general dismissed the case on his own, saying IU had acted to beef up employee HIPAA training since the suit was filed.

The Indiana Supreme Court reprimanded Rokita in late 2023 for attacking Dr. Bernard in a Fox News interview while the licensing investigation was still in progress. The court’s disciplinary arm has been probing a second complaint against Rokita over his public statement after the reprimand, in which he blamed the investigation on “liberal activists” and distanced himself from the reprimand agreement’s acknowledgment of misconduct.