An arrest has been made in connection with the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio. The case garnered international attention last week after President Joe Biden expressed outrage regarding the situation because the child had traveled out of state to receive an abortion.
Abortion services after six weeks of pregnancy were made illegal in the girl’s home state of Ohio following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
President Biden mentioned the girl’s case when announcing that he had signed an executive order to protect “access to reproductive health care services” on July 8.
“This isn’t some imagined horror,” Biden said. “It is already happening. Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life.”
The girl was allegedly raped by a man living in Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Dispatch first reported that Gerson Fuentes, 27, was detained on Tuesday after police said he admitted to raping the minor on at least two occasions. He has since been charged with rape, a first-degree felony in Ohio.
Reportedly, Fuentes is an unlawful migrant from Guatemala with a “detainer request,” according to an ICE official that spoke with Fox News.
Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning during Fuentes’ arraignment that Franklin County Children Services received a referral from the girl’s mother on June 22 that alerted Columbus police about the girl’s pregnancy. The girl had a medical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, according to Huhn.
Additionally, Huhn testified that DNA is being tested from the clinic in Indianapolis to determine if Fuentes fathered the aborted fetus.
Fuentes is being held at the Franklin County jail under a $2 million bond. His next court date is July 22.