On Wednesday, news broke that a man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl from Ohio was arrested. The 10-year-old became pregnant and obtained an abortion in Indiana. It was confirmed by an ICE source that the man, Gerson Fuentes, "is a Guatemalan national in the U.S. illegally & ICE has placed a detainer on him with local law enforcement."
From the start, the story has been disturbing, as well as confusing, with few details available. What details were initially available for a time came from a single source, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who performs abortions in Indiana. The 10-year-old ultimately received her abortion in Indiana on June 30, although Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who cast doubt on the story earlier in the week, said she would not have had to leave the state.
The initial reporting from the Indianapolis Star from July 1 had only a brief mention of Bernard:
On Monday three days after the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio.
Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant.
Could Bernard help?
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But for now, the procedure still is legal here [in Indiana]. And so the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard's care.
The law in Ohio has not "outlawed any abortion after six weeks." There is an abortion ban in effect once there is a detectable heartbeat, which is at around six weeks. There are exceptions to save the life of the mother or severely compromised physical health, which Yost said would apply to this 10-year-old girl.
Dr. Bernard also would not respond for follow-up comments, including from Megan Fox, of our sister site at PJ Media, who has conducted the most thorough research on this story and asked important questions when other would not. Fox had compiled a Twitter thread on July 5 pointing to red flags in the story. Many were in reference to Bernard, who, in 2017 was profiled by The New York Times for her pro-abortion activism and opposition to then President Donald Trump's ban on funding foreign abortions.
Sent another inquiry to Dr. Bernard due to the reported information I'm trying to confirm. If she responds I'll let you know. pic.twitter.com/J8IpQNzOiJ
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) July 13, 2022
As news began to come in that the story had been confirmed, though before the arrest was announced, Fox continued to ask the necessary questions, which involved reaching out to Dr. Bernard.
There are also reports that Dr. Bernard is being disciplined for a HIPAA violation by her employer. Fox's tweet mentions a "reported claim" that Bernard is being investigated by Ezkenazi Health. More should be coming on that as FOIA requests are filed.
As Fox mentioned in her Twitter thread from July 5, it's telling that Bernard's move would be to go to the media about this, and then keep quiet when asked for follow-up.
On Monday, Fox appeared on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" to discuss her findings and thoughts about such a "suspicious" story that the pro-abortion side is using "as a political weapon."
Here's the clip https://t.co/5G2C4AmtRW
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) July 11, 2022
As Glenn Kessler noted in a fact-check for The Washington Post, "Bernard declined to identify to the Fact Checker her colleague or the city where the child was located. 'Thank you for reaching out. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information to share,' she said in an email." Snopes said in their fact-check that Bernard did not respond.
What in clear in all of this, though, and what is a major red flag from Fox, when she discussed how Dr. Bernard appears to have "another agenda," is that Bernard is a mandated reporter.
As John McCormick wrote for National Review on Tuesday,:
Bernard is also refusing to say whether she submitted reports to Indiana’s department of health and its department of child services, as state law requires. The Indiana Code states that a report must be submitted to the state department of health for each abortion performed, and the report must also be submitted to the department of child services within three days of the abortion if the patient undergoing the abortion is under the age of 16. It is a crime in Indiana for a health-care provider to fail to submit such a report. By statute, “Each failure to complete or timely transmit a form, as required under this section, for each abortion performed or abortion inducing drug that was provided, prescribed, administered, or dispensed, is a Class B misdemeanor.”
Dr. Bernard's past raises more red flags in this situation. Reporting from The Columbus Dispatch about the arrest mentions Dr. Bernard, but only briefly. There is no mention of her reporting anything:
Columbus police were made aware of the girl's pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22, Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning at Fuentes' arraignment. On June 30, the girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis, Huhn said.
...
The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett sister paper of The Dispatch, first reported earlier this month that a 10-year-old rape victim traveled from Ohio to Indiana for abortion services after most abortions became illegal in her home state. The account was attributed to Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis physician who provides abortion services.
Fox noted in a piece for PJ Media about the arrest that "Bernard refused to clarify whether or not she had reported the alleged crime to authorities."
"According to the report, the Franklin County Department of Child Services received a report of the incident on June 22 from the child’s mother. It is not known how long it took DCS to give that report to the police, but the fact that the suspect was not arrested until after the story went viral raises questions," Fox also wrote.
Mia, in her coverage from Wednesday, complete with footage provided to Townhall of Fuentes' arraignment, has more:
In the 27-minute video, Det. Jeffrey Huhn, who initiated the investigation, testified that Columbus law enforcement was made aware of the girl's pregnancy through a Franklin County Children Services referral made by the child's mother. Huhn said that he was assigned the case when a police report was generated per mandated reporting. At the time, the daughter was still pregnant. As of Wednesday, the child is not, Huhn stated, telling the court that the victim sought an out-of-state medical abortion in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The consultation to end the pregnancy took place on June 29, Huhn said, and the procedure happened one day later on June 30. "The products of conception were picked up on the 2nd of July," Huhn testified. Daniel Meyer of the Franklin County Prosector's Office representing the state of Ohio prompted Huhn to clarify what he was referring to, asking "Is that the aborted fetus?" and "Is that currently available for DNA testing?" To which, Huhn answered, "Yes," adding that the remains of the aborted baby have been entered into evidence.
This is relevant because as Fox had also reported, Dr. Bernard was one of nine abortionists in Indiana who were accused by Indiana Right to Life of not properly reporting, according to public documents.
From the press release by Indiana Right to Life:
Some of the girls under 16 years old who had abortions that weren't reported to DCS were as young as 12 and 13. The alleged 48 instances of failure to report occurred since July 1, 2017. The 48 consumer complaints have been filed with Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill and the Indiana State Department of Health. The Marion, Lake, Tippecanoe and Monroe county prosecutors have also been notified.
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In Indiana, it's a crime for a person 18 or over to engage in any sexual activity with a child under age 16. Indiana lawmakers clarified state reporting requirements in 2017, instructing abortion doctors to report all abortions on girls under 16 to ISDH and DCS within three days of the abortion. Prior to July 1, 2017, state law explicitly required the reporting of abortions on girls under 14.
Another of those nine Martin Haskell, is a notorious late-term abortionist who pioneered the now illegal partial-birth abortion procedure and had to fight to keep his practice open in Ohio, though he had his license revoked there and the Ohio Department of Health had shut down his practice.
Another abortionist, Jeffrey Glazer, had 11 complaints filed against him, including to do with an abortion of a 12-year-old girl.
Live Action has been documenting evidence of abuses committed by abortionists for over a decade now, including not fulfilling a duty to report. In a 2008 investigation, Live Action founder and president Lila Rose posed as a 13-year-old girl who had been impregnated by her 31-year-old boyfriend and was seeking an abortion. Many Planned Parenthood facilities, including in Indiana, were found to be willing to look the other way and provide the abortion, or guide her to get one elsewhere.
