WaPo Fact Checker Casts Doubt on Story Biden Recalled of 10-Year-Old Rape Victim's Abortion
© AFP 2023 / SAMUEL CORUM
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Pushing forward an executive order to protect the federal right to an abortion on Friday, US President Joe Biden was quick to recount a story about a 10-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and "forced" to depart her home state of Ohio for neighboring Indiana to get an abortion. However, the authenticity of the story is now in question.
A Washington Post fact checker, Glenn Kessler, has scrutinized the now-viral story about a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion, particularly pointing out that the lack of supporting facts did not prevent the bombshell story from making it into President Biden's talking points.
On July 8, the US president signed an executive order to protect abortion rights that would expand access to abortion pills, birth control, as well as have the administration "considering" updating the guidelines that highlight doctors' responsibilities and protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. In his remarks, Biden used the 10-year-old girl's story as an emotional talking point.
"This isn’t some imagined horror. 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 president said.
However, according to Kessler, the story, originally ran by the Indianapolis Star, severely lacks credibility for the president to use as an argument.
"With news reports around the globe and now a presidential imprimatur, however, the story has acquired the status of a 'fact', no matter its provenance. If a rapist is ever charged, the fact finally would have more solid grounding," Kessler wrote in his fact-check.
The most concerning parts of the story, the WaPo analyst continues, is lack of any additional sourcing aside from an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, Caitlan Bernard, who claims to have received a call from "a child abuse doctor" from Ohio who revealed the unsettling story to her and sent the alleged rape victim to Indiana for Bernard to provide an abortion.
Despite Bernard being on the record, there seems to be no criminal case opened into the incident, as doctors are required to report to law enforcement any case of known or suspected physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect of a child. Bernard, however, refused to elaborate on that; as did the story's lead reporter, Shari Rudavsky.
Even though the story received worldwide attention and now has been addressed by the US president, its only source remains to be Bernard, who was also revealed to be an abortion rights advocate.
When pressed on Biden using the story as a talking point, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre failed to clarify whether the local law enforcement was seeking the child's attacker.
"The President spoke to that -a young woman -just to show how extreme the decision on... the Dobbs decision was, and just how extreme it is now for American public, the American families," was the only comment by the press secretary.
The Ohio governor's office said it was unaware of any specific case falling in line with the Indianapolis Star story. The Washington Post's Fact Checker reported that it contacted child services agencies in some of Ohio's big cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo.
"None of the officials we reached were aware of such a case in their areas," the WaPo concluded.
