President Joe Biden delivers remarks on reproductive rights as Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra listen at the White House on July 8.
Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Editor’s note: The Columbus Dispatch reported Wednesday, a day after this lead article was published, that a Columbus, Ohio, man has been charged with raping a 10-year-old Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion. The Dispatch reports that Columbus police were made aware of the pregnancy through a referral to local children’s services by the girl’s mother on June 22. An article correcting the record on the case was published Wednesday night. All kinds of fantastic stories travel far and wide on social media these days, but you don’t expect them to be heard in the White House. That, however, appears to have happened on Friday, as President Biden signed an executive order on abortion. With Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra nearby, Mr. Biden repeated a story that made the rounds on social media after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. He said a 10-year-old girl he did not identify by name had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion because Ohio now prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat is discovered. The girl had been raped, he said, and Ohio law no longer includes exceptions for abortions in cases of rape or incest. Mr Biden became agitated as he spoke: “Ten years old. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already injured. He was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl. Just—I’m serious—just imagine being that little girl.” Imagine, indeed. The tale is a powerful post-Roe tale of grief for those who want to make abortion a ballot issue this fall. One problem: There is no evidence that the girl exists. PJ Media’s Megan Fox was the first to point it out and so far no one has been able to identify the girl or where she lives. The claim came from a July 1 Indianapolis Star article titled, “Patients Head to Indiana for Abortion Services as Other States Cut Care.” Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, told the paper’s medical reporter that after Ohio’s ban went into effect, she had received a call about the girl from a “child abuse doctor” in the Buckeye State. The 10-year-old soon “was on her way to Indiana to take care of Bernard.” Apparently Dr. Bernard performed an abortion. Health professionals have a duty to report child rape to law enforcement, but Dr. Bernard would not say where the alleged crime occurred or identify the Ohio doctor who referred the case. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told Fox News on Monday that his office has not heard “a whisper” of such a crime from prosecutors, police and sheriffs in his state. You may not be surprised to learn that Dr. Bernard has a long history of abortion activism in the media. What we seem to have here is a presidential stamp of approval on an improbable story from a biased source that fits the progressive narrative perfectly, but cannot be corroborated. The abortion debate is intense and passions are running high. But the American people deserve better from their President than an unproven story designed to aggravate those passions. Wonderland: Democrats always seem on the verge of pushing politics into a state of civil unrest. Images: Getty Images/The Boston Globe Composite: Mark Kelly Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the print edition July 13, 2022.
