Ohio Man Arrested For Rape Of 10-Year-Old Girl That Led To Abortion In Indiana
The Columbus, Ohio man was arrested in the disturbing case that drew international attention.
Gerson Fuentes of Columbus, Ohio, has been arrested and charged for impregnating a 10 year old girl. According to documents obtained by HollywoodLife, the man, 27, was listed in the official complaint as the suspect accused by the young victim of raping her. He was arrested on Tuesday July 12, per The Columbus Dispatch. Authorities in the case say he admitted to raping the unnamed girl on two separate occasions, leading to her pregnancy. He was charged with rape, a first-degree felony in the state, after the girl travelled to Indiana to obtain a medical abortion on June 30.
The girl’s mother reportedly referred the case to Franklin County Children’s Services back on June 22, per testimony by Detective Jeffrey Huhn provided at the arraignment on Wednesday, July 13. According to Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Daniel Meyer per USA Today, the girl had just turned 10, meaning she had likely been impregnated at the age of 9. Gerson Fuentes is currently being held at the Franklin County jail on a $2 million bond.
The case induced rage and sympathy after the shocking U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V Wade on June 24. The ruling triggered a law immediately in Ohio, where a “heartbeat” bill explicitly prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected — hence the child’s need to travel out of state for the medication-induced abortion. Some anti-choice activists had previously doubted the existence of the 10-year-old girl. The arrest and details confirmed her story as all-too-real.
Dr. DeShawn Taylor, an Arizona OB-GYN, predicted catastrophic consequences for the overturn of abortion rights in an interview with HollywoodLife back in May. Taylor founded her independent abortion clinic in 2013 in order to provide safe abortions. “There will be people who are forced to continue pregnancies and it will be the people who are already struggling. People who are from lower economic status,” she told HL. Worse, young women with additional health problems can be likely to die if forced to give birth.
“Young women with potential heart failure have a very high likelihood of dying in childbirth,” she explained. “The medical term is cardiomyopathy, where there is a defect in the heart muscle and it can’t sustain the stress of all the changes that happen in a body to prepare someone for the massive blood loss that happens during delivery. So if they continue the pregnancy, their heart will fail.”