The suspect charged with raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl in Ohio has appeared in court, after the case made national waves when the victim had to cross state lines to obtain an abortion due to the Supreme Court's recent ruling.
Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arraigned on Wednesday in Columbus, where he faces a charge of felony first degree rape of a child under 13. Bail was set at $2 million.
Fuentes, whom federal sources said is present in the country illegally, confessed to raping the girl at least twice, a police investigator testified at the arraignment.
The detective also testified that the victim in the case was forced to travel to Indiana to get an abortion following the Dobbs ruling, a claim that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, along with other conservatives, had cast doubt upon just days ago.
In a statement on Wednesday, Yost quickly took a different tack, saying: 'My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child.'
'I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street,' added the Republican attorney general.
Yost said that his state investigators are 'ready to support law enforcement across Ohio putting these criminals behind bars.' He did not address his previous suggestions that the case was fabricated.
The shocking juvenile rape case exploded onto the national consciousness last week, when President Joe Biden pointed to it to highlight fallout from the Dobbs ruling and pro-abortion activists seized on it to slam states that have banned the procedure.
But many abortion opponents had cast doubt on the story, including Yost, who appeared on Fox News Monday to say that his office works closely with police departments across the state, but had heard 'not a whisper anywhere' of the 10-year-old girl's ordeal.
Wednesday's testimony put the dispute over the facts to rest.
At the arraignment, a police detective testified that the victim in the case underwent an abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, after first receiving a medical consultation one day earlier, video of the hearing from WCMH-TV shows.
Ohio's statewide ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy had gone into effect on June 24, just hours after the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion
The Ohio ban has no exceptions for cases of rape. Abortions after six weeks remain legal in Indiana, though the Republican-controlled state legislature is expected to consider new restrictions later this month