Many right-wing individuals are claiming some of the scary, disgusting, and crazy stories being shared from women post-Roe v Wade being overturned are falsified. Some horrifying stories just cannot be made up and most are completely factual. Turning a blind eye and being ignorant will not help the state of our country. One story, in particular, is really hitting home the consequences of overturning Roe.
Last Tuesday Gershon Fuentes was arrested in Ohio for raping a 10-year-old girl whom he not only raped multiple times but she also got pregnant from Fuentes. The incident ironically and tragically occurred just three days after the overturning of Roe. Fuentes actually confessed that he raped the child on at least two occasions. Fuentes is allegedly undocumented and is not a citizen of the United States. He is currently held in Franklin County Ohio with no bond.
Most importantly, the girl who just had the most traumatic experience of her life was denied a medical abortion in her State of Ohio. Because the victim turned 10 recently she was actually only 9 years old when the rape occurred. It is completely unreasonable to think that after such an occurrence a child has no access to the appropriate healthcare that they need. The girl ended up having to travel to Indiana where abortions were still being performed, to receive the procedure. Abortion providers have claimed that they are seeing an increase in the number of patients needing an abortion since Roe was overturned. Indiana did not have an immediate effect of banning abortions post-Roe being overturned and it is anticipated that the State will do so in the next coming months.
This case is further evidence that abortion is a completely necessary part of our healthcare system and should be treated as such. If that girl was unable to receive an abortion, we do not know what the outcome could have been for her, or the fetus. It’s safe to say though, that it could have turned out tragically. The girl could have lost her life, experienced a miscarriage, or the fetus could have had complications due to the girl’s age. Pro-lifers can claim all day that every life matters but in this case, it is clear the girl’s life wasn’t a priority. Pro-lifers need to really take the time to reflect on the facts of what it truly means to be pro-life. They have an extremely narrow viewpoint and ideology that is not based on fact nor is even congruent with their morals and values that they claim to have. Governor Kristi Norm was quoted saying ” Nobody’s talking about the pervert, horrible and deranged individual that raped a 1o-year-old girl”. We are now treating the victims of rape and sexual assault more like criminals than the criminal that committed the crimes!
This story needs to be told everywhere in defense of not overturning Roe. These are the situations and many more that women are fighting for. It is simply barbaric and also archaic to force a 10-year child and rape victim to carry and deliver a child. Children’s young bodies are not even equipped to handle childbirth. Sadly this is not an isolated incident where a child is being raped, but it is uncommon to have it occur in a “developed” country like America where a child does not have access to abortion care. Typically this is only seen in underdeveloped countries.
Hopefully, this case will help serve for change in the fight for women’s and girl’s bodily autonomy. It would be a disgrace for the nation and our movement to not take this case into consideration as to why the government should have no control over a woman’s right to choose. At this point, if we do not learn from our mistake of overturning Roe quickly, we will keep going back in time and cease being a “progressive nation”, a developed nation.
