Last week I wrote about the need for reckoning in the at-that-point unsubstantiated story about a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim who was brought to Indiana for an abortion. As disgraceful as it would have been – and as adamant as I was in the column that if it was, those who peddled it for political purposes should be shamed – I desperately wanted the story to be a fabrication.
I wrote then:
To be clear, this isn't a "gotcha" moment for the pro-aborts. Of course, if it does turn out they did concoct this story, the lying abortionist should be censured, the paper shamed, and the pro-abortion movement's already-dismal credibility should suffer another critical blow.
But suppose there is tragic merit to the story, and consequently this innocent 10-year-old girl is being used as a mere weapon in a larger war by forces who care little to nothing about her actual well-being. For all the talk about the need for "reproductive justice," this girl deserves criminal justice, and reporters, newspapers, and activists alike should be unwilling to rest until she gets it.
Play your abortion games later. For now, if one really exists, make the rapist known, make his crimes infamous, and let the public mete out swift, harsh, and appropriate justice. The fact that no one seems interested in doing so speaks to either their own confidence the story is a fable, or their own galling disinterest in justice. Neither is acceptable.
As it turned out just days after that story ran, the account wasn't a fable. There was a 10-year-old girl, she had been raped, her story was being used as an arrow in the quiver of those attempting to justify all abortion-for-convenience under the tragic veil of this innocent child's sexual abuse, and it got even worse.
The whole of progressive media ran with the ghoulish angle that the criminal revelation was somehow a good thing, since it vindicated them from conservative accusations they made up the story to push their abortion agenda. From print to broadcast media, liberal reports and anchors maintained what can only be described as a macabre, barely-restrained glee as they crowed a little girl had in fact been stripped of her sexual innocence by a monster, thinking that somehow "owned the cons."
But what was intentionally missed in the media's ghastly victory lap was this horrifying reality:
Make sure you understand what that says. When the abortionist who "treated" this little, innocent girl that the left claims to care so much about, reported the crime to the state as she is required to do thanks to pro-life laws, she lied to protect the rapist. Again, the abortionist told the state that a 27-year-old man who raped a 10-year-old girl and got her pregnant was actually a minor himself, thus potentially shielding him from felonious legal action.
Where are all the cries about justice?
This despicable fact proves two things. First, it validates precisely what I wrote about this abortionist, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, in my piece from last week when I described her as having a "track record of extremism" and one of "advocacy (for abortion) over honesty." Second, it demonstrates exactly what the pro-life movement has been saying for decades on end – that far from being "safe," legal abortion enables, empowers, and encourages sexual abuse and trafficking.
The fact that Gerson Fuentes, the Guatemalan national who has now been arrested for this heinous crime, has been living in the country illegally for seven full years and thus with proper legal enforcement would have never been near this girl to rape her, is likely another reason besides self-worship that the mainstream press would rather gloat than report.
But whatever the media's motivation, this last week has made clear all over again: far from vindicating any cause or crusade of the left, this sick story reaffirms that the most dangerous thing in the world for the protection of innocent women and children is the enactment of progressive policy.
