Journalist casts doubt on claim about 10-year-old rape survivor in Ohio

UPDATE, 7/13/22: An arrest has been made in this case, which up until today had not been verified. Gershon Fuentes, 27, of Columbus, was arrested yesterday, according to The Columbus Dispatch. According to police, Fuentes confessed to raping the 10-year-old girl at least twice. He is being charged with rape, a first degree felony in the state. Questions surrounding this incident remain, which Live Action News will update in a separate article.

UPDATE, 7/12/22: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said there has been no hint of this story circulating within law enforcement, during an interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News. When Watters asked if any police reports had been filed, investigations opened, or questions asked, Yost said no.

“Not a whisper and we work closely with the centralized law enforcement system in Ohio,” he said. “We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs. Not a whisper anywhere. Something even more telling, Jesse, is my office runs the state crime lab. Any case like this you are going to have a rape kit, you are going to have biological evidence, and you would be looking for DNA analysis, which we do most of the DNA Analysis in Ohio. There is no case request for analysis that looks anything like this.”

Yost’s response adds to the numerous red flags raising doubt about the veracity of this story.

7/08/22: Just days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a story of a 10-year-old girl, allegedly the victim of rape who sought an abortion in Ohio, made the rounds in the media. The claim was that this girl was six weeks and three days pregnant, so she had to travel to Indiana for the procedure due to Ohio’s newly restored heartbeat law.

Abortionist Caitlin Bernard made the story public, claiming she committed the procedure after being contacted by a “child abuse doctor.” There was no evidence given to verify the claim (including no further confirmation from Bernard herself) , but the story has quickly spread through media like wildfire anyway, used as a narrative to claim that laws protecting preborn children are evil and unjust. But the question no media seems to have asked (until now) is whether the claim is even true.

In a Twitter thread, journalist Megan Fox of PJ Media raised numerous questions, calling into doubt that the situation ever happened to begin with.

“A pregnant 10 year old is evidence of a heinous crime against a child but in every article (and there are SO MANY) there is no mention of criminal investigation, no police involvement, not even a town where this allegedly occurred,” Fox began. “An unnamed alleged ‘child abuse’ doctor called Dr. [Caitlin] Bernard (an abortionist in Indiana) to ask for help. But any doctor who knows of abuse would be required to also call law enforcement. There should be a criminal investigation going involving Ohio DFS and police.”

She continued:

The TIMING of this horrific story is too on the nose. Roe v. Wade was just overturned. The media is desperate for stories to push the pro-abortion narrative, stoke fear, anger, and division. They love this.

The article first published in the Indy Star, a local Ohio paper’s site but in record time was picked up by huge international press. On the 2nd, The Hill and Newsweek had it and by the 3rd, The Guardian had it, and by the 4th it was on TMZ, reaching all the kids.

She pointed out that Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, was being attacked over this situation — even though none of it had anything to do with her state.

“It was immediately used as a political weapon against Republican Governor Kristi Noem and will be used against other pro-life politicians to make them answer this possibly hypothetical or made-up scenario to win political hit points,” Fox wrote. “[Dr. Caitlin Bernard], the only source, is an abortionist and has been in the NYT participating in an anti-Trump hit piece and is clearly an activist. She has a stake in preserving abortion, it literally pays her bills.”

“There’s no way to verify Bernard’s claim,” Fox went on. “She has doctor patient confidentiality. No one can FOIA her. The media won’t ask any questions and even if they did she wouldn’t answer. There is no proof that this 10-year-old even exists and yet the media ran with it full tilt.”

Furthermore, there is decidedly little concern about the larger matter at hand: the actual crime committed against a child. The rape has been completely ignored, with the focus solely on abortion.

“Why don’t any of them care about the crime committed against the child?” Fox asked. “Lawmakers in OH should demand an investigation into who raped this child. They are the only ones who can get information through DFS and help the girl seek justice for the crime, if it happened. Did it?”

Fox then went on to raise questions about Bernard’s motives.

“[Bernard] got a call from another doctor asking for help for a horribly abused child and her first instinct was to call the media,” she said. “That should make you all stop and think for a minute. What’s really going on here?”

Fox further went on to illustrate, in a number of tweets, how Bernard already enjoys a cushy relationship with the media:

“Not even Snopes can confirm this story. They want to, but they can’t,” Fox pointed out. “[Bernard] doesn’t return anyone’s calls. I wonder why that is?”

She then shared a press inquiry she sent to the Indy Star, but said she is not optimistic they will respond.

So far, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has not commented about the story, beyond to point out that the only information came from Bernard and Indiana media outlets. In a column for PJ Media, Fox criticized DeWine for his lack of response.

“It’s too bad because this story could be blown to bits,” she wrote. “OR verified and a rapist could be caught with a simple police investigation. But justice for raped and abused children isn’t what pro-abortion activists or their pals in the rabid corporate media care about. What they want is more abortions, and they don’t care how many abused children have to be used as political pawns to get them.”