An Ohio man was arrested in the rape and impregnation of a 10-year-old girl after the state's Republican attorney general cast doubt on a story that drew international attention.
Gerson Fuentes, 27, of Columbus, confessed to raping the child at least twice, according to police, and was charged with rape after police were alerted to the girl's pregnancy from Franklin County Children Services a little over a week before she traveled to Indianapolis for an abortion,
reported The Columbus Dispatch.
The girl's mother reported her pregnancy to social workers on June 22, two days before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion rights, and she traveled out of state June 30 to obtain a medical abortion in a case cited by President Joe Biden and covered extensively by news organizations around the world.
"Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim in Ohio — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of the state, to Indiana, to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life," Biden said during a speech on reproductive rights last Friday. "That’s — the last part is my judgment. Ten years old. Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl. Just — I’m serious — just imagine being that little girl. Ten years old."
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"Does anyone believe that it’s the highest majority view that that should not be able to be dealt with, or in any other state in the nation?" the president added. "A 10-year-old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child? I can tell you what: I don’t. I can’t think of anything as much more extreme."
A judge set bond at $2 million for Fuentes, who is believed to be undocumented and a flight risk, and his DNA is being tested against samples collected from the girl in Indiana, where abortions are still permitted after a fetal heartbeat is detected, unlike in Ohio.
The
Wall Street Journal cast doubt on reports about the girl a day before Fuentes' arrest, calling the case "An Abortion Story Too Good To Be Confirmed," and Ohio attorney general Dave Yost questioned the story this week on Fox News and during an interview Tuesday with USA Today, saying "there is not a damn scintilla of evidence" the story was true.
He issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday, after news broke that Fuentes had been arraigned: "We rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets."
