President Joe Biden comment on reproductive rights as Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra at the White House on July 8.
photo:
Alex Wong/Getty Images
All kinds of fictional stories are spread far and wide on social media these days, but you wouldn’t expect them to be heard in the White House. Yet that seems to have happened on Friday when President Biden signed an executive order on abortion.
And to Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra, Mr Biden repeated a story doing the rounds on social media in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, He said a 10-year-old girl he didn’t recognize by name was forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion because Ohio now prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat was discovered. The girl was raped, he said, and Ohio law now includes no abortion exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Mr Biden became agitated as he spoke: “Ten years old. Rape, six weeks pregnant. Already hurt. Was forced to move to another state. Imagine that she is a little girl. Just—I’m serious—just imagine being that little girl.”
Imagine it, really. Story is a powerful post-Roe deer A tale of condolence for those who want to make abortion a voting issue this fall. One problem: There is no evidence that the girl exists. Megan Fox of PJ Media was the first to point this out and so far no one has been able to identify the girl or where she lives.
The claim appeared on July 1 in the Indianapolis Star headline, “Patients go to Indiana for abortion services because other states restrict care.” Caitlin Barnard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, told the paper’s medical reporter that she had received a call about the girl from a “child abuse doctor” in Buckeye State after the Ohio ban went into effect. The 10-year-old was soon “moving to Indiana to care for Bernard.” Probably Dr. Bernard miscarried.
Medical 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 had “heard no whispers” about such a crime from prosecutors, police and sheriffs in his state. It won’t surprise you to learn that Dr. Bernard has a long history of abortion activism in the media.
What appears to us here is a presidential seal of approval on an unexpected story from a biased source that neatly fits the progressive narrative but cannot be substantiated. The abortion debate is intense and passions abound. But the American people deserve better than an unproven story designed to fuel those passions from their president.
Wonder Land: Democrats always seem to be on the edge of pushing politics into a state of civil unrest. Images: Getty Images / Boston Globe Composite: Mark Kelly
opinion | It’s too good to confirm the abortion story
President Joe Biden comment on reproductive rights as Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra at the White House on July 8.
photo:
Alex Wong/Getty Images
All kinds of fictional stories are spread far and wide on social media these days, but you wouldn’t expect them to be heard in the White House. Yet that seems to have happened on Friday when President Biden signed an executive order on abortion.
with the vice president
Kamala Harris
And to Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra, Mr Biden repeated a story doing the rounds on social media in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, He said a 10-year-old girl he didn’t recognize by name was forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion because Ohio now prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat was discovered. The girl was raped, he said, and Ohio law now includes no abortion exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Mr Biden became agitated as he spoke: “Ten years old. Rape, six weeks pregnant. Already hurt. Was forced to move to another state. Imagine that she is a little girl. Just—I’m serious—just imagine being that little girl.”
Imagine it, really. Story is a powerful post-Roe deer A tale of condolence for those who want to make abortion a voting issue this fall. One problem: There is no evidence that the girl exists. Megan Fox of PJ Media was the first to point this out and so far no one has been able to identify the girl or where she lives.
The claim appeared on July 1 in the Indianapolis Star headline, “Patients go to Indiana for abortion services because other states restrict care.” Caitlin Barnard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, told the paper’s medical reporter that she had received a call about the girl from a “child abuse doctor” in Buckeye State after the Ohio ban went into effect. The 10-year-old was soon “moving to Indiana to care for Bernard.” Probably Dr. Bernard miscarried.
Medical 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 had “heard no whispers” about such a crime from prosecutors, police and sheriffs in his state. It won’t surprise you to learn that Dr. Bernard has a long history of abortion activism in the media.
What appears to us here is a presidential seal of approval on an unexpected story from a biased source that neatly fits the progressive narrative but cannot be substantiated. The abortion debate is intense and passions abound. But the American people deserve better than an unproven story designed to fuel those passions from their president.
Wonder Land: Democrats always seem to be on the edge of pushing politics into a state of civil unrest. Images: Getty Images / Boston Globe Composite: Mark Kelly
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Appeared in the print edition, July 13, 2022.