Widespread Outrage As 10-year-old Rape Victim Denied Abortion In Ohio

A 10-year-old girl from Ohio who got pregnant after getting raped was denied an abortion days after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, media sources reported on Saturday.

She had to travel across state lines to Indiana after a child abuse pediatrician in Ohio contacted Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist based in Indiana. Ohio outlawed abortions on Friday after six weeks when Roe was overturned. The girl was six weeks and three days pregnant when Dr. Bernard was contacted, the Indianapolis Star, an Indianapolis daily life reported.

While abortion bans have not yet taken place in Indiana since Roe v. Wade’s overturn, state lawmakers are pushing for the state to enact restrictions, Newsweek reported.

The story of the 10-year-old girl has sparked outrage across the country, with abortion advocates arguing that the GOP can’t claim to focus on protecting lives when it comes to allowing victims of child abuse to conceive their pregnancies.

Legal commentator Mark Joseph Stern said, “The relentless sanctity with which anti-abortion activists claim moral high ground while forcing 10-year-olds and rape victims to remain pregnant against their will is perverse and counterproductive.”

On Sunday, South Dakota Kristi Noem, seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, defended abortion laws including South Dakota’s that would mean a 10-year-old from Ohio would have to have her own child.

Ms. Noem said the girl’s “terrifying” story would keep her up at night, but ultimately states like South Dakota, which ban all abortions except to save a pregnant person’s life, are doing the right thing.

“What I would say is that I do not believe that a tragic situation should be escalated by another tragedy,” Ms. Noem told CNN. “We have to do a lot more to make sure we’re truly living a life that says every life is precious, especially the innocent life that’s shattered like that 10-year-old girl.”

When pressed by anchor Dana Bash about whether forcing the baby to be a child was considered a medical risk to the mother, Ms. Noem was non-committal.

“That situation, the doctor, the family, the person closest to him will decide there for that family,” she said.

Abortion is outright banned in some states, without exceptions for victims of rape, incest, and abuse.

But critics say it’s not just GOP extremism that the 10-year-old’s story exposes. They argue that it also highlights the urgency of using the full power of the federal government to restore access to abortion.

The Biden administration has committed to things like maintaining already legal access to mail, and drug-based abortion services, but it hasn’t done anything that will replace the new status quo.

Instead, many top Democrats backed down from urging a party loyal to the election in November because, as Mr. Biden put it, “this fall, Roe is on the ballot.”

Some argue that it is the left-wing equivalent of what Republicans have called for “thoughts and prayers” after gun violence: the presence of care, but the absence of action.

“A 10-year-old girl in Ohio deserves someone to fight for herself,” former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

“A 10-year-old girl was denied abortion services in Ohio. 10,” she continued. “So no, I’m not okay with the Democratic Party’s response to federal only ‘vote in November’. Residents of my state can’t wait until November and 10-year-olds can’t vote.”

Instead, she called on the Biden administration to go along with its calls to make Filibuster an exception, to flag an abortion clinic on federal land, and codify a law to pressure holdouts in the Senate.

Gavi Begtrup, a Democratic candidate running for Ohio State House, wrote in what became a viral tweet about the situation that “the State forces her to remain pregnant and tells her to consider it an ‘opportunity.’ This isn’t Iran. This isn’t Gilead. This isn’t hypothetical.” His tweet received over 335 thousand likes as of Sunday morning.