A 10-year-old girl becomes pregnant after being raped in the United States. Since Ohio, after a landmark ruling on abortions, also massively restricts access to abortions, the child has to travel to another state. President Biden is stunned.
US authorities have confirmed the high-profile case of a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel to another state for an abortion. In Ohio state, a 27-year-old man has been charged with raping a minor under the age of 13. According to the newspaper “Columbus Dispatch”, police officer Jeffrey Huhn confirmed at a court hearing that the raped ten-year-old girl had an abortion in the neighboring state of Indiana at the end of June. The arrested man confessed to the rape. In addition, DNA samples of the aborted embryo would be examined to prove the perpetrators.
The case sparked outrage in the United States after the Supreme Court abolished the nationwide right to abortion. Ohio banned abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy immediately after the US Supreme Court decision of June 24. The rape victim had to travel to Indiana for the abortion.
President Joe Biden spoke about the girl’s case last week when he unveiled measures to protect abortion rights. “Imagine what it’s like to be that little girl.” However, right-wing politicians and the media doubted that the case had actually happened – especially since there was initially only one source, the abortion doctor in Indiana.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said the story struck him as “a fabrication.” The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday criticized Biden for giving the “presidential seal of approval” to an “unlikely story from a biased source”.
Attorney General Yost thanked the police for arresting “the rapist who made a 10-year-old victim pregnant.” In his brief statement, however, he did not say a word about the fact that the girl had actually traveled to Indiana for an abortion.
On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 landmark “Roe v. Wade” ruling that enshrined a nationwide fundamental right to abortion. The decision caused a political earthquake and is considered a historical turning point.
Because there is no federal law on abortion, states can now largely or completely ban abortion. Numerous conservative-governed states have already done so. The new law in Ohio allows exceptions to the ban on abortion after six weeks only if the life of the mother is at risk, but not in cases of rape or incest.
