An Indianapolis doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio took the first step Tuesday toward suing Indiana’s attorney general for defamation. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who gave the girl a medication-induced abortion on June 30, filed a tort claim notice over what she says are false statements that Attorney General Todd Rokita has made about her and her work. Bernard received widespread attention after she gave an interview to the Indianapolis Star about the child, who traveled to Indiana to get the abortion. The claim starts a 90-day period for the state to settle the claim. If it’s not, DeLaney could file a lawsuit. Rokita did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Mississippi abortion clinic that was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade has ended a lawsuit in which it was seeking to block the state from enforcing a law banning most abortions. Jackson Women’s Health Organization dropped its litigation a day after clinic owner Diane Derzis told The Associated Press that she sold the facility and had no intention to reopen it, even if a state court allowed her to do so. She plans to open a new clinic in New Mexico. Court battles over access to abortion are playing out in multiple states. On Tuesday, West Virginia’s only abortion clinic resumed scheduling patients for abortions. New restrictions on some abortions were in effect in Indiana.

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The June 24 ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats took steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Opening statements have begun in the case of Kristin Smart, who disappeared during her freshman year at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo more than 25 years ago. She is presumed dead and her body remains missing but the man accused of killing her is on trial beginning Monday. Paul Flores is charged with murder and his father Ruben Flores is charged as an accomplice for allegedly helping his son bury Smart's body. Both have pleaded not guilty. San Luis Obispo prosecutors say Paul Flores killed Smart while trying to rape her in his dorm room in May 1996 when they were freshmen.

The release of a transcript of previously sealed testimony in Roman Polanski's long-running sex abuse case in Los Angeles is the latest development in a legal saga that has spanned 45 years. The transcript obtained Sunday by The Associated Press showed that a former prosecutor handling the case testified that a judge said in private that he would renege on a promise and imprison the renowned director. The testimony had long been sought by Polanski's lawyers to argue their contention that the Oscar-winning director was mistreated by the Los Angeles court system. The director pleaded guilty in 1977 to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Philadelphia police are looking for a man they say raped a woman on a subway platform while holding her boyfriend at gunpoint. This is the third reported sexual assault since October on a Philadelphia-area commuter train or train station. The rape happened at about 4:30 a.m. Monday on the platform of the Snyder Avenue station on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s Broad Street Line. SEPTA officials say they are working to increase the agency's police presence and have recently added outreach specialists to reinforce rules on the trains and call police when needed.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The smiling face of Kristin Smart still looks out from a billboard in front of attorney James Murphy Jr.’s law office more …