Man charged in rape of 10-year-old Ohio girl who had to travel to Indiana for abortion
Franklin County Sheriff
Gershon Fuentes, 27, was arrested on July 12, according to Columbus police and court documents.
A Columbus man has been charged with raping a 10-year-old Ohio girl who then had to travel to Indiana seeking an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to court proceedings CNN obtained through affiliate WBNS.
Rumors of the case garnered national and international attention, with some US political leaders referencing it in conversations about abortion bans.
Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arrested Tuesday, according to Columbus police and court documents. He has been charged with felony rape of a minor under age 13, according to the Franklin County Municipal Court. His first court appearance was Wednesday.
Fuentes is being held on $2 million bond, according to the court. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment.
Fuentes admitted to authorities he raped the young girl on at least two occasions, Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday at Fuentes’ arraignment.
Police first were alerted to the child’s pregnancy in late June through a referral by a local children services department that was made by the 10-year-old’s mother, Huhn testified.
The girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, the detective testified. DNA from the Indianapolis clinic was being tested against samples from Fuentes and the child’s siblings, Huhn said.
Fuentes’ next court appearance is July 22, court documents show.
In a statement Wednesday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said, “My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child.”
“I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street,” Yost said. “Justice must be served and (the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation) stands ready to support law enforcement across Ohio putting these criminals behind bars.”
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, an Ohio law banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy went into effect.
Indianapolis-based OBGYN Dr. Cailin Bernard told CNN earlier this month that after being contacted by a child abuse doctor in neighboring Ohio, she recently helped a 10-year-old girl have an abortion in Indiana. The young girl was six weeks and three days into the pregnancy, Bernard told CNN.
The doctor said she saw an immediate influx of patients seeking abortions in Indiana, particularly from bordering states Kentucky and Ohio, which passed laws severely limiting abortion care following the Supreme Court decision.
The Columbus Dispatch newspaper was first to report on the case and arrest. The Columbus Police Department would not immediately provide additional details on the arrest.
“Out of compassion for victims we will not comment on any rapes of juveniles,” Columbus police spokesperson Sgt. Joe Albert told CNN.
CNN has reached out to the Ohio attorney general, Franklin County Child Services and an Indiana-based abortion provider for additional details.
In the days before details emerged of Fuentes’ arrest, some conservative media outlets and Republican officials had expressed doubt about the case or whether the girl existed.
Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, tweeted, “Another lie. Anyone surprised?” The tweet has since been deleted.
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Stacker
For nearly 50 years, abortions were protected as a constitutional right. In June of this year, the Supreme Court claimed the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, the case that established this precedent, was based on a “remarkably loose treatment of the constitutional text,” and as such, overturned the ruling in a 5-4 vote. It is estimated that 36 million people were impacted by the decision as former laws become null and void, and even older laws from before Roe became relevant once again.
Stacker analyzed data from the Guttmacher Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the number of women who live in areas where abortion access is already or likely to be restricted in the aftermath of the Roe reversal.
The legality of abortion is now up to individual states, many of which seek to ban it completely. In this new legal landscape, nearly half of all women in the U.S. live in areas where access to safe abortions will likely become more restrictive, if not impossible.
The 1973 court that heard Roe v. Wade ruled that a woman’s right to obtain an abortion was protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and its implied right to privacy. While the right to privacy—meaning the right to be free from government intrusion in this context—is not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, it exists under the penumbra and is considered a fundamental right. This room for interpretation, no matter how small, is often what makes privacy issues within a constitutional framework so controversial.
Although the court upheld a woman’s right to obtain an abortion, it did not do so absolutely. States were permitted to regulate abortions after the point of fetal viability—when a fetus can survive outside of the womb—except in cases when pregnancy threatened the health or life of the mother.
Most experts agree fetal viability happens around 24 weeks, but can really only be determined on a case-by-case basis. The inability to standardize fetal viability as a gestational demarcation opened the doors for states to set their own guidelines, as with Texas’ and South Carolina’s heartbeat bill and Mississippi’s gestational age act. Fetal viability was at the center of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the case out of Mississippi that catalyzed the June 2022 reversal of Roe.
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