National Right to Life official: 10-year-old should have had baby.
Jim Bopp, an Indiana lawyer who has authored model legislation for anti-abortion state lawmakers to adopt in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, told POLITICO on Thursday the 10-year-old Ohio girl who crossed state lines to receive an abortion in his state should have carried her pregnancy to term and would have been required to do so under his law.
Bopp, the National Right to Life Committee’s general counsel, said his law only provides exceptions when the pregnant person’s life is in danger.
“She would have had the baby, and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child,” Bopp said in a phone interview on Thursday.
The story of the 10-year old rape victim forced to leave her home state to terminate a pregnancy has sparked a national conversation over the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and how far some states are willing to go to prohibit abortions.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on Wednesday that a 27-year-old man was charged with rape in connection with the case.
While Bopp’s model legislation, which was released in advance of the Supreme Court’s ruling late last month, encourages states to ban all abortions unless necessary to save the life of the pregnant person, it notes “it may be necessary in certain states to have additional exceptions, such as for a women pregnant as a result of rape or incest.”
“Unless her life was at danger, there is no exception for rape,” Bopp said. “The bill does propose exceptions for rape and incest, in my model, because that is a pro-life position, but it’s not our ideal position. We don’t think, as heartwrenching as those circumstances are, we don’t think we should devalue the life of the baby because of the sins of the father.”
It is currently legal to have an abortion in Indiana up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, though the state legislature is expected to hold a special session later this month to consider legislation that would ban abortion.
Republican legislative leaders have not shared details of the bill they plan to introduce, though abortion-rights proponents in the state are expecting the bill’s text to hew closely to Bopp’s model legislation.
Bopp said he believes it is “highly likely” Indiana’s legislature will pass a law during its special session that will “provide substantial protection to the unborn.”
“What the exact details of that are, I don’t know,” Bopp said.
Man charged with raping 10-year-old girl who was denied abortion over Roe v Wade
A 27-year-old man – identified as Gershon Fuentes – has appeared in court in the US, charged with raping a 10-year-old girl.
The girl was blocked from having an abortion at six weeks in her home state of Ohio following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The ruling means there is no longer a nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy and individual states now have the freedom to make their own laws on abortion access.
Instead, the girl was forced to travel to Indiana for the procedure, where abortion is currently legal. However, lawmakers are expected to bring in tighter restrictions, with reports saying that the state is "likely" to reinstate a ban on abortion.
A 27-year-old man – identified as Gershon Fuentes – has appeared in court in the US, charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later fell pregnant but was denied an abortion.
At six weeks pregnant, the victim was blocked from having an abortion in her own state following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The ruling means there is no longer a nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy and individual states now have the freedom to make their own laws on abortion access.
Instead, the girl (who lives in Ohio) was forced to travel to Indiana for the procedure, where abortion is currently legal. However, lawmakers are expected to bring in tighter restrictions, with reports saying that the state is "likely" to reinstate a ban on abortion.
"It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks we will have no ability to provide that care," Dr Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, told the Columbus Dispatch. Bernard had treated the girl after a colleague in Ohio who works with child abuse victims called and asked for help.
Abortion providers like Bernard say they have seen a sharp increase in the number of patients, from the nearby states where such procedures are now restricted or banned, coming to their clinics for abortion.
The case has further reignited conversation in the US about abortion rights, and has forced anti-abortion political figures to address how the rights of women and girls – including abuse victims – will be balanced against abortion restrictions.
Yet some anti-abortionists have seemingly deflected on the matter, with Republican governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota – where abortion is now illegal unless "necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female" – telling CNN that the public should be "addressing those sick individuals [who] do this to our children" adding that "nobody’s talking about the pervert, horrible and deranged individual that raped a 10-year-old."
As for whether she would push to change the law in South Dakota if a similar case occurred, Noem said: "I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy. There’s more that we have got to do to make sure that we really are living a life that says every life is precious, especially innocent lives that have been shattered, like that 10-year-old girl."
When asked if the 10-year-old should have had the baby, the Republican replied, "every single life – every single life is precious. This tragedy is horrific. But, in South Dakota, the law today is that the abortions are illegal, except to save the life of the mother."
Although, Noem did not rule out that performing an abortion on the 10-year-old could be classed as protecting the life of the pregnant female. "Yes, that situation, the doctor, the family, the individuals closest to that will make the decisions there for that family."
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A Top Republican Cast Doubt On The Rape Of A 10-Year-Old Girl Who Had An Abortion. A Suspect Was Just Arrested.
A man has been arrested for the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who, due to the state's restrictive abortion laws, traveled to Indiana to end the pregnancy, officials said.
The case, which was first reported by the Indianapolis Star, sprang to national attention in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned. President Joe Biden referenced it in a speech Friday, highlighting it as an example of the grim consequences that accompany abortion bans.
"Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state," Biden said. "Just imagine being that little girl. Ten years old."
On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost appeared on Fox News, where he suggested the young girl's story was a political hoax, saying he had heard "not a whisper" about it.
"I know our prosecutors and cops in this state — there’s not one of them that wouldn’t be turning over every rock in their jurisdiction if they had the slightest of hint that this occurred there," said the Republican leader, who within hours of the Supreme Court decision enacted a ban on abortions after six weeks.
Despite Yost's flat dismissal of the story, an arrest was made Tuesday. Gerson Fuentes, 27, has been charged with the rape of a victim younger than 13, court records show.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, police said Fuentes confessed to raping the young girl at least twice. An officer who reportedly testified at the arraignment on Wednesday said police were alerted to the incident after the 10-year-old's mother reported it to child services on June 22, just over a week before she had an abortion in Indiana on June 30.
In a statement following the arrest, Yost said his "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.
Yost, however, did not apologize or otherwise comment on his earlier remarks casting doubt on the case.
In the Fox News interview, he also claimed the 10-year-old legally would have been able to get an abortion in Ohio.
"Ohio’s heartbeat law has a medical emergency exception broader than just the life of the mother," he said. "This young girl — if she exists and if this horrible thing actually happened to her, breaks my heart to think about it — she did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment."
It is not clear whether Yost's claim is accurate, and a spokesperson in his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking for clarification. Under current state law, abortions are illegal once fetal cardiac activity is detected, which typically occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy. No exceptions are made for cases of rape or incest.
The "medical emergency" exception Yost pointed to is not clearly defined, largely leaving it up to the "physician's good faith medical judgment" whether an abortion is necessary to "prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to avoid a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman."
Doctors who perform abortions deemed illegal under Ohio law can be charged with a fifth-degree felony, which can be punished with up to a year in prison.
Threats to a patient's mental health do not qualify as an example of a "serious risk" that would allow for an abortion, the law states.
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