Man charged with raping 10-year-old Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion

An Ohio man has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl. The case gained national attention after a doctor said the child had to travel to Indiana for an abortion. Some prominent Republicans – including Ohio’s attorney general and a congressman – then suspected the story was fabricated.

President Biden highlighted this case last week when signing an executive order protecting abortion access after Republican-led states like Ohio effectively passed bans following the recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended constitutional protections for abortion rights.

At an initial court appearance for the 27-year-old suspect, a detective testified Wednesday that Columbus police learned of the girl’s pregnancy through a Franklin County Children Services referral made by her mother on June 22 and that she had an abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

The detective said DNA from the Indianapolis abortion clinic would be tested to confirm paternity.

An Indianapolis doctor who performs abortions, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, had told the Indianapolis Star that one such child had been aborted because the girl in Ohio could no longer become pregnant due to a newly imposed state abortion ban at the first detectable fetal heart activity. A judge lifted the ban’s stay after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision.

Ohio’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost told Fox News on Monday that he had heard “no word” from Ohio law enforcement about any reports or arrests related to such a case.

“Another lie. Is anyone surprised?” tweeted Republican U.S. Representative Jim Jordan in response.

On Wednesday, Jordan tweeted that the suspect “should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” He left a message at his office on Wednesday seeking comment.

In the Fox interview, Yost suggested that the young rape victim would qualify for a medical emergency exemption from Ohio’s abortion ban.

“This young girl, if she exists and if this horrific event happened to her – it breaks my heart to think about it – she did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment,” he said.

The law defines an emergency as life-threatening or a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” Under that definition, the 10-year-old’s condition would not have met the threshold of an emergency, Kellie Copeland, director of Pro-Choice Ohio, an abortion rights group, said Wednesday.

In a statement Wednesday, Yost said the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation stands ready to assist in prosecution, but he did not address his earlier suspicions that the case was fabricated.

Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, had previously called the crime a tragedy. “He said if the evidence bears this out, the rapist should spend the rest of his life in prison,” said DeWine’s spokesman Dan Tierney.

According to police, the suspect confessed to raping the girl. He was arrested on Tuesday and has not confessed.

Court records do not indicate if the suspect knew the girl, or how. Prosecutors declined to comment on the case, and police did not respond to a request for further details. The Associated Press generally does not name victims of sexual assault and is not releasing the suspect’s name at this time to avoid inadvertently revealing the girl’s identity.

In 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit on behalf of Bernard, the doctor in the 10-year-old’s case, challenging a law passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature that largely banned abortion in the second trimester, which the legislature called “dismemberment abortion.”

The law first took effect last week after a federal judge lifted a temporary restraining order blocking the law, following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

For the record:
16:09 13 July 2022: An earlier version of this article said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was among those who questioned the credibility of the rape case. He did not question the credibility. The earlier version also said Wednesday’s court hearing was an arraignment. It was a first court hearing, not an arraignment.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.