When President Joe Biden last week cited a report about a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio forced to travel out of state to Indiana to get an abortion, it quickly made national headlines in the heated environment following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe Vs. Wade.
In the days that followed, the story went viral, first as an example of the realities of new state abortion restrictions, then with doubts cast on the story by right-wing commentators such as Fox News’ Jesse Waters, who said Monday that if the story was not accurate, the mainstream media and Biden would “catch up on yet another hoax.”
Outnumbered hosts and pundits joined in the doubts.
But on Wednesday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Gershon Fuentes, 27, had been arrested in the case. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who told Waters on Monday that his office had not heard “a whisper” about the case, said Wednesday that “we rejoice any time a child rapist is taken off the street.”
What happened was actually the reverse debunking: The story was flagged as suspicious by some Fox News figures, deemed “too good to be true” by The Wall Journal Journal editorial board, and questioned by other media outlets, including The Washington Post fact-checker instead confirmed it. Among the first to do so was the news side of Fox News.
In a July 1 story, The Indianapolis Star reported that Dr. Caitlin Barnard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, received a call from a child abuse doctor in Ohio who had a 10-year-old female rape patient who could not abortion in the state because of a law passed just hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. After that, the girl traveled to Indiana, where new restrictions have not yet passed.
In his speech, Biden lamented the post-Roe environment. “This is not some made-up horror. This is already happening,” he said.
The next day, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler published an analysis of the story. His conclusion: “This is a very difficult story to verify.” While Bernard was on the record, it was “almost impossible” to verify the allegation without more specific details “that would identify the locality where the rape occurred.” Snopes.com also said it could not confirm the story.
In his commentary, casting doubt on the story, Waters cited Kessler’s analysis while noting the multiple media outlets that picked it up. “We have no luck confirming this story,” while chiding the Indianapolis star for what he called “running and hiding” from the story.
The next day, Outnumbered commenters went even further, focusing in part on the fact that the IndyStar story was single-sourced. Anchor Emily Compagno chided IndyStar and said the news organization “believes the public’s right to know is part of their agenda.”
“Take it from me,” said Compagno, “because my wheelhouse was criminal law as a lawyer. There are also 10-year-old rape victims. …There are so many monsters out there. So to me, what I find so deeply offensive is that they had to come up with a fake.
Contributor Charlie Hurt said: “The idea that you would have politicians in America trying to exploit a story like this and make up a story like this to push their own sick agenda tells you that they are not serious about this, and they are not serious about the people who are affected by the problem.”
Guest Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, said the story was likely one of a number of “too rich to verify” reports that have received widespread coverage in the media and on the left. “I hope it’s not true because the fact is so horrifying,” she said.
On Tuesday night, Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie, citing an unnamed source, told Special Report that the story was in fact true, that an arrest warrant was expected soon, and that Bernard was being investigated for possible violations of medical confidentiality. “The source says the hospital strongly believes the HIPAA violation is how the White House confirmed the story. I was told that Bernard is still employed and working. And receiving death threats.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Columbus police “were made aware of the girl’s pregnancy through a referral from Franklin County Children’s Services made by her mother on June 22.” Kessler wrote that he contacted Franklin County officials about his initial analysis, but they have not responded.
Kessler tweeted that his original piece noted that “If a rapist is ever charged, the fact will finally have a more solid foundation.”
“The rapist has now been charged and the story has been updated,” Kessler wrote. “I get a lot of angry emails, but journalism is the accumulation of facts.”
A spokesman for The Indianapolis Star said its executive editor, Bro Krift, was not available for comment, but earlier this week the publication released a statement in which he said: “The facts and sources about people crossing state lines into Indiana, including 10-year-old girl, about abortions are clear. We have no further comment at this time.”
Kessler writes that the story raises questions about single source and independent corroboration, something left for others to consider. But it is also an example of the dangers of mental thinking, whether on the right or the left. Hurt inadvertently addressed this, with a double negative, when he said in the group of superlatives: “The absence of evidence that it is not true is not evidence that it is true. And that’s somewhat what the media has come to today.”
FoxNews.com, meanwhile, has updated its reporting on the case, now with a story citing an ICE source that the suspect in the case is an illegal immigrant.
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