An Ohio man has been arrested and charged with raping a 10-year-old girl whose out-of-state abortion drew national headline amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Gershon Fuentes, 27, was arrested Tuesday and ordered held Wednesday on a $2 million bond, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
The young girl, who has not been publicly identified, was first written about on July 1 by the Indianapolis Star in an article about women traveling for abortions. The girl had been denied health care in Ohio, one of the first states to ban the procedure after six weeks, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Three days past the six-week mark, the girl went to Indiana instead.
The story drew condemnation, including from President Joe Biden while he was signing an executive order on abortion access on July 8.
“This isn’t some imagined horror. It is already happening,” he said. “Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life.”
But others denied the story was true, including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who told Fox News that he hadn’t heard “a whisper” about it. In a separate interview, he accused the Star of having an “ax to grind.”
“My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child,” Yost said in a statement Wednesday. “I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street.”
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