Some Republicans called the case a “lie,” but this proves it really happened.
In a case that has drawn both national and worldwide attention, a man has been arrested in Ohio for raping a nine-year-old girl who became pregnant and had to travel across state lines for an abortion aged just 10.
Gerson Fuentes was apprehended on Tuesday and charged with the rape of a minor, and he’s currently being held on a $2 million bond. During his arraignment, it was revealed that the young girl, who hasn’t been publicly identified, had to travel to Indiana to terminate the pregnancy.
Now, a doctor who helped the child obtain the abortion could face disciplinary action for her role. Indiana’s Republican attorney general Todd Rokita filed a complaint, accusing Dr. Caitlin Bernard of violating state law by not reporting the girl’s child abuse to state authorities. He also alleged that she violated patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment.
“Dr. Bernard violated the law, her patient’s trust, and the standards for the medical profession when she disclosed her patient’s abuse, medical issues, and medical treatment to a reporter at an abortion rights rally to further her political agenda,” Rokita’s office said in a statement. “Simply concealing the patient’s name falls far short of her legal and ethical duties here.”
Meanwhile, Bernard and her lawyers have pushed back, maintaining the girl’s abuse had already been reported to both Ohio police and child protective services officials before the doctor saw the child.
Unfortunately, cases like this might be more common than you might think. According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 7,000 girls aged 14 or younger were pregnant nationwide in 2013, and roughly half of those pregnancies were aborted. But it’s hard to say where this number stands now, especially now that federal abortion rights have been overturned following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade.
Here’s why the case in Ohio has become such a political flashpoint.
Who is Gerson Fuentes?
The twenty-seven-year-old admitted to raping the young girl, who was just 9 at the time, on at least two occasions. But Columbus police didn’t learn about the case and make an arrest until the girl’s mother contacted Franklin County Children Services. The girl has since testified that Fuentes was the one who got her pregnant, and DNA testing is underway to confirm that he’s the father of the aborted fetus.
If convicted, Fuentes could face a lifetime in jail, but much of the focus has been on his immigration status rather than his crime. An unnamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement source told Fox News that Fuentes was from Guatemala and had entered the U.S. illegally.
Why has the case gotten so much attention?
The story has been subjected to a politicized dispute over its authenticity. It was first reported by the Indianapolis Star based on information provided by Dr. Bernard, an abortion provider who said she’d been contacted about the girl’s pregnancy. But when Bernard declined to corroborate her account due to concerns about patient-doctor confidentiality, Republicans seized on the lack of further detail and claimed the story had been made up — that is, until the Columbus Dispatch officially reported Fuentes’s arrest, proving that it really happened.
The skepticism surfaced when Ohio Attorney General David Yost said he hadn’t heard a “whisper” of the case and doubled down on the idea that it was likely a fabrication. But after the report was confirmed by authorities, he praised Feuntes’s arrest and said that his “heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child.” Similarly, Rep. Jim Jordan called the story “another lie” before deleting the remark on Twitter and applauding the arrest. Prominent news outlets also joined in on the skepticism, such as The Wall Street Journal, which deemed it “an unlikely story from a biased source” — until its editorial board updated the post with news of Fuentes’ arrest.
“It’s always shocking to me that people are surprised to hear about these stories,” Dr. Bernard told The New York Times. “The fact that anyone would question such a story is a testament to how out of touch lawmakers and politicians are with reality.”
Why has the story been tied to the abortion debate?
The case received international attention when President Biden referenced it after signing an executive order aimed at protecting abortion: “Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state.”
The 10-year-old girl was also directly impacted by the reversal of federal abortion rights: She traveled out of her home state just three days past Ohio’s six-week abortion ban, which went into effect hours after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on June 24. Though she was able to get access to the procedure in Indiana, the Republican-controlled legislature there is expected to consider new restrictions in a matter of weeks.
But even those steps remain unclear, as Indiana Republicans have given no indication of whether they’ll push for a full abortion ban or allow for exceptions in cases of rape or incest. “I am comfortable saying I want to make progress to protect innocent life and I will continue to be,” Gov. Eric Holcomb said.
With a ban temporarily blocked in court, abortion remains legal up to 20 weeks after fertilization, or 22 weeks of pregnancy, in the state.
