The story also became the timber from which right-wing politicians and commentators constructed a metaphorical pyre to burn their Witch of the Month, abortion provider Bernard.
Conservatives furiously jockeyed for position among the online and televised mob,
battling to be the loudest in
questioning the validity of the story. Much of their criticism was focused on Bernard, accusing her of fabricating the story for a partisan political charade to oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn
Roe v. Wade.
“
The story was not true,” declared top-rated Fox News host
Tucker Carlson.
A “
fantastical tale,” and “too good to confirm,” a
Wall Street Journal editorial said.
There were “ten red flags” about the story, PJ Media’s
Megan Fox told Fox News’
Jesse Watters, adding “
this story should now be placed in the hoax category.”
Ohio Attorney General
Dave Yost (R) also went on Watters’ show, declaring he had heard “
not a whisper” about the case and claimed Ohio law didn’t actually prohibit the girl’s abortion so she shouldn’t have had to leave the state.
Emily Compagno, co-host of Fox News’
Outnumbered, called the story “deeply offensive” and “fake.”
“
Another lie,” tweeted Rep.
Jim Jordan (R-OH).
The objections were false. The outrage a fraud. The tragic news:
that was real.
As
The Columbus Dispatch reported on Wednesday,
Gerson Fuentes, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant, was arrested and charged with raping the girl. Columbus police said that he had
confessed to raping her on at least two occasions.
With Fuentes arrested and
public court records verifying the key elements of the story, the punditry posse clung tightly to their torches and pitchforks as they shifted to echoing Yost’s claim the abortion could have been done in Ohio, bizarrely attempting to take credit for Fuentes’ arrest, and accusing Bernard of various crimes.
Regarding the difficulty of finding an Ohio doctor to perform this abortion, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor
Ken White (aka
Popehat on Twitter)
tweeted a thread eviscerating Yost’s arguments.
“The people telling you the 10-year-old could get an abortion in Ohio are ignorant or lying,” White wrote, noting Ohio allowed no exceptions for rape, incest, or age of the mother. Doctors might conclude a pregnant girl so young met the statute’s exceptions for risk to the mother’s life or “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function,” but, he argued, it was far from clear legally, and a lawyer would be a “fool” to advise a doctor to go forward and risk the loss of their license, lawsuits, and prison.
https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/oh...efore-figuring-out-if-witchery-is-even-afoot/
