Man Arrested for Raping 10-Year-Old Ohio Girl Who Had to Travel to Indiana for Abortion
The arrest came amid a hideous conservative conspiracy theory alleging that the story was fabricated.
AbortionPolitics

Just a week after the fall of Roe, a horrifying story emerged from Ohio: A pregnant 10-year-old girl was denied an abortion in the state and forced to travel to Indiana for care. Somehow, the story got even worse, as right-wing media began circulating doubts about its veracity. Now, a 27-year-old man has been arrested and charged with raping the victim—offering further proof that the nightmarish account was all-too real.
The case became an international news story after The Indianapolis Star reported on July 1 that Indianapolis ob-gyn Dr. Caitlin Bernard received a request from an Ohio colleague who had seen the 10-year-old victim. She was six weeks and three days pregnant—which meant that under the state’s new six-week abortion ban, which lacks exceptions for rape and incest, she could not be treated in her home state. The story, an awful illustration of the multiplying injustices of post-Roe America, struck such a chord that even President Biden, who’s long been reluctant to even say the word “abortion,” mentioned it in a speech last week.
“Ten years old,” Biden said in remarks Friday. “Ten years old, raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl. I’m serious, just imagine being that little girl.”
Now, according to a report by The Columbia Dispatch, a Columbus man named Gershon Fuentes has been arrested for the crime: