Man gets life sentence for raping girl who traveled from Ohio to Indiana for abortion

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man accused of impregnating a 9-year-old Ohio girl, who traveled to Indiana to get an abortion, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of rape.

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Gerson Fuentes, 28, was sentenced as part of a plea deal and will be eligible for parole after serving 25 to 30 years, WCMH-TV reported. If he is released, Fuentes would have to register as a sex offender.

Fuentes, who is from Guatemala but lives in Columbus, appeared in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, where he entered his plea agreement, The New York Times reported.

Judge Julie Lynch, who was not required to approve the plea agreement, said the girl’s family “begged” her to back the agreement. She called the deal a “very hard pill for this court to swallow,” according to The Associated Press.

“The court considers this the worst of the offense,” Lyons said. “Anyone who’s been in this courtroom for the last 20 years knows how this court feels about babies, young people, being violated,” Lynch said.

The girl was 9 when she was raped and was 10 when she traveled to Indiana for the abortion, CNN reported.

Medical records indicated that the child had the abortion on June 30, 2022, WCMH reported. By July 2, Columbus police went to an Indianapolis hospital to investigate the girl’s pregnancy, prosecutor Daniel Lenert said at the hearing.

According to the television station, police claimed that Fuentes confessed to raping the girl twice when she was 9 years old. DNA evidence later confirmed that Fuentes was responsible for the sexual assault, Franklin County Prosecutor Dan Meyer said.

The indictment said that the assaults took place between Jan. 1 and on or about May 12 of last year, the Times reported.

Zachary Olah, an attorney who represented Fuentes, said that his client had been cooperative throughout the proceedings.

“He was anxious to get this resolved,” Olah said.

The case gained national attention in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the Roe v. Wade case that was decided in January 1973.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard of Indianapolis said a 10-year-old child had to travel to Indiana to terminate a pregnancy because Ohio banned the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy, the Times reported. The law provided no exceptions for rape or incest, according to the newspaper.

In Ohio, sex with a person under the age of 13 is a first-degree felony.

Bernard said the girl was six weeks and three days into her pregnancy, CNN reported. Her comments were first reported by the Indianapolis Star.

In 2021, 465, or about 5.5%, of the more than 8,400 abortions performed in Indiana were performed on out-of-state residents, the Star reported, citing the Indiana Department of Health’s terminated pregnancy report. More than half, 264, lived in Kentucky and in Ohio, the report stated.

In May 2023, Indiana’s medical licensing board reprimanded and fined Bernard $3,000 after it determined the disclosure violated federal and state patient privacy laws. The board issued no restrictions on Bernard’s ability to practice medicine, according to the AP.