Comment Delivering impassioned remarks about the future of abortion access in the United States, President Biden expressed outrage over the case of a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio who was forced to travel out of state to get an abortion. “She had to travel out of state to Indiana to try to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “Ten years old — 10 years old! — raped, six weeks pregnant, already injured, forced to travel to another state.” The Indianapolis Star reported last week that, three days after the Supreme Court strike Roe v. Wade, an Ohio doctor who treats abused children called an Indianapolis-based obstetrician-gynecologist about a 10-year-old rape victim who needed an abortion. Ohio passed a law in 2019 that made it illegal to have an abortion at about six weeks, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the Ohio law took effect. The girl was, at that point, six weeks and three days pregnant. The Supreme Court ruling leaves states free to ban abortion The Ohio doctor asked the Indiana doctor if there was anything they could do for the girl. She was later able to cross state lines to have an abortion under the care of the Indiana doctor. While getting an abortion before six weeks is still legal in Indiana, state lawmakers will meet later this month to consider further restrictions on abortion. According to the Indianapolis Star, abortion providers in the state are receiving more calls from out-of-state patients seeking abortion services. Abortions performed on patients under 15 in the country are rare — in 2019, 0.2 percent of reported abortions were performed on patients that young, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As Biden repeated the girl’s story on Friday, he became visibly upset. A 10-year-old girl, he said, should not be “forced to give birth to a rapist’s child.” Biden’s focus on the child came shortly before he signed an executive order to protect abortion rights following the Supreme Court ruling. The administration has faced pressure from other Democrats to do more, but Biden has acknowledged that his executive power has limits. The Supreme Court decision, he said, was “terrible, extreme and I think it’s a completely wrong decision”. He added that, in his view, the majority of the court is “playing fast and loose with the facts” in his opinion, misrepresenting the history of abortion rights in America. “I can’t think of anything more extreme [the] court order,” said an emotional Biden. Biden’s comments on the 10-year-old’s case were in stark contrast to those of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), who focused on the crime, calling the child’s sexual assault a “tragedy,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. saying that what the state has out there, “obviously, [is] a rapist.” “We’ve got somebody who’s dangerous and we’ve got somebody who needs to be picked up and locked up forever,” DeWine said. However, she did not comment on the Ohio law she signed that barred her from performing abortions in the state. “This is a horrible, horrible tragedy for a 10-year-old to be attacked, for a 10-year-old to be rushed,” DeWine said Wednesday, according to the Enquirer. “As a father and a grandfather, it’s scary to think about.” Ohio’s law was one of so-called trigger bans that went into effect in many states soon after the court was abolished Roe. Biden outlines new steps aimed at strengthening abortion rights At the daily briefing after Biden’s remarks, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said the president discussed the girl’s case “just to show how extreme the decision was to Dobbs The decision was also how extreme it is now for the American public.” “When you have a girl so young who has to be the child of a rapist, that’s unacceptable,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s why it calls for action. That’s why he’s trying to do what he can with the legal authority he has.” Biden, Jean-Pierre said, “will do everything he can to protect young people who are like this young girl.” “But at the same time, he’s going to call it out and use his bully pulpit to make it clear that what’s going on out there is unacceptable,” he added. The president, during his remarks on Friday, also warned of a future in which Republicans in Congress feel emboldened to pass a national abortion ban. Such a measure, he said, would not become law under his watch because he would veto it. “We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in concert with extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away our liberties and personal autonomy,” he said.
