{"id":272416,"date":"2022-07-13T18:21:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T23:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=272416"},"modified":"2025-01-12T19:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T01:39:04","slug":"arrest-10-year-old-ohio-rape-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/arrest-10-year-old-ohio-rape-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrest made in 10-year-old Ohio rape victim case, but questions remain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UPDATE, 1\/12\/25<\/strong>: In July 2023, Gerson Fuentes was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25-30 years after entering a guilty plea. He was charged with two counts of rape. According to CNN<\/a>, “Prosecutors and defense attorneys recommended the sentence in a plea deal, Judge Julie Lynch said in court.”<\/p>\n

7\/13\/22<\/strong>: Earlier this month, the Indianapolis Star published an article<\/a> that caused international headlines. Indianapolis abortionist Caitlin Bernard said she had committed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl, a survivor of rape who had reportedly been prevented from obtaining an abortion in her home state of Ohio. The rapist has since been identified and arrested, but not before questions swirled about the legitimacy of the story \u2014 and even now, many more questions remain.<\/p>\n

Gerson Fuentes, 27, has been arrested and charged, according to the Columbus Dispatch<\/a>. He confessed to raping the girl on at least two occasions in May, causing her to become pregnant. Fuentes’ arrest and potential long-term imprisonment is, without a doubt, a good thing; someone who commits the horrific act of rape \u2014 and in particular, the rape and impregnating of a child \u2014 deserves severe punishment.<\/p>\n

When Dr. Bernard first told the story, many doubted its veracity<\/a> due to a number of red flags, missing information, and inconsistent details. Now it is clear that the story is true \u2014 but questions still remain.<\/p>\n

Media response<\/h3>\n

The Columbus Dispatch reported that police discovered the pregnancy after the girl’s mother made a referral to Franklin County Children Services on June 22. According to NBC4, the girl received a consultation for the abortion on June 29 in Indianapolis, 175 miles from Columbus, Ohio. On June 30, the girl reportedly underwent a “medical abortion.”<\/p>\n

The Indianapolis Star published its story about the incident at 5:00 a.m. on July 1 \u2014 the very next day<\/em>. This indicates that Bernard very quickly notified the media about the situation, and the Star was able to put the story together in a very short time.<\/p>\n

Did the girl and her mother know they were about to be front-page international news? Did they consent to their story being told? As of now, that’s still not known.<\/p>\n

A timeline of events reported by media shows:<\/p>\n