The story of a 10-year-old rape victim who left Ohio for Indiana to have an abortion made national news after President Joe Biden mentioned it in a speech before signing an executive order to protect abortion rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Caitlin Bernard performed the procedure on the child who was six weeks and three days pregnant. She had been contacted by an Ohio doctor who specialized in child abuse victims but couldn’t perform the procedure due to Ohio’s law that bans abortions at the point of a heartbeat, which usually occurs around six weeks in. Bernard reported providing a medication abortion to a 10-year-old girl on June 30 at Indiana University Health Medical Center.
Those who are anti-abortion expressed skepticism at the story until Gershon Fuentes, a 27-year-old man, was arrested and charged in Franklin County, Ohio, for raping the girl.
Some Republican lawmakers struggled to make sense of the case.
“I’m a pro-life guy, ok? And God’s in charge on this,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas). “We’re all God’s children. This is a tough call, and I don’t know if I know that answer right now, because now you’ve got another baby involved: She’s pregnant … She’s a baby.”
Others blamed Fuentes, who was an illegal immigrant.
“We didn’t know that an illegal alien did this heinous act. We never doubted the child,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told the media. “The lie was the news headline … the headline from your profession. We doubted Joe Biden, which is usually a smart thing to do, but we didn’t know that this illegal immigrant had done this terrible thing. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
