An Ohio man has been arrested and charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl, whose journey across state lines to undergo an abortion drew national attention.
Gerson FuentesThe 27-year-old was arraigned Wednesday in Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, where he was charged with raping a child under 13, a crime that carries a life sentence. He was held on a $2 million bond.
The arrest, and its connection to the young rape victim’s case, was… first reported in The Columbus Dispatch after a public dispute over whether the story was true.
The young victim’s case came to the center of the abortion debate after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade.
That decision triggered a wave of abortion restrictions, including a law in Ohio that prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, with no exception for rape or incest. The law banned the 10-year-old from having an abortion in her home state after her parents found out she was pregnant.
According to a doctor familiar with her case and court testimony, the girl’s family took her to Indiana to undergo an abortion, where the procedure is legal for up to 22 weeks.
The story of the girl who… appeared first in The Indianapolis Starwas immediately seized upon by abortion rights advocates as the tragic but expected result of strict abortion restrictions.
President Biden quoted the story after signing a… executive order on abortion: “Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state.”
Before this week’s arrest, some conservatives, including Ohio’s Supreme Prosecutor, questioned the story. The young girl has not been publicly identified, nor has the Ohio doctor who first treated her, and Attorney General David Yost told Fox News his office was unaware of a case involving a 10-year-old rape victim. used to be.
On Wednesday, Mr Yost’s office released a statement praising Mr Fuentes’ arrest.
“My heart aches at the pain this young child has suffered,” the statement said. “I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in extracting a confession and getting a rapist off the street.”
Published in an editorial before the news of the arrestThe Wall Street Journal called the case “an unlikely story from a biased source that fits neatly into the progressive narrative, but cannot be confirmed.” The Journal later added an editor’s note acknowledging the arrest.
In a video of the court hearing posted by conservative news site Townhall, Detective Jeffrey Huhn testified that the victim was a 10-year-old whose mother took her to Indiana for an abortion in late June, when she was just about six. weeks pregnant. Detective Huhn said during the hearing on Wednesday that Mr Fuentes confessed to raping the girl twice.
The Columbus Division of Police declined to comment.
A spokesman for the US Immigration and Customs Service said Mr Fuentes was an undocumented immigrant. A lawyer for Mr Fuentes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The timeline in the police statement is consistent with Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the OB/GYN who first told The Star about the case.
“I always find it shocking that people are amazed at these stories,” said Dr. Bernard in an interview with The New York Times. “The fact that anyone would question such a story is a testament to how far away lawmakers and politicians are from reality.”
dr. Bernard said such stories were unfortunately not as rare as people might think, noting that she was caring for her first minor rape victim early on in her medical residency. Since then, she has helped several families navigate pregnancy after a child was raped, she said.
More than 7,000 girls aged 14 or younger were pregnant nationwide in 2013 according to a report from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. About half of those pregnancies were terminated through abortion, according to Guttmacher.
Ohio’s own public health data found that more than 500 girls and women ages 18 and under had an abortion in 2020.
Some anti-abortion lawmakers have taken on the challenge of a Balkan-esque legal landscape with proposals to discourage residents from traveling to other states to seek abortions. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb convened a special legislative session, scheduled for July 25, where the state may consider tougher abortion restrictions.