It's Necessary: Yost puts his foot in mouth by doubting case of 10-year-old rape victim
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In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, so-called "trigger laws" either banning or restricting abortion access came into effect in multiple states. In Ohio, a "heartbeat" law banned abortion after six weeks, a time in which many people don't even know they are pregnant. Abortion rights proponents have said this law, like others around the country, would lead to tragic, unforeseen circumstances.
Such a tragedy played out when a 10-year-old Ohio girl was raped and became pregnant. Due to the new law, and first reported by The Enquirer's sister paper, The Indianapolis Star, the girl and her family had to travel to Indiana for an abortion. There were few details, just an account from the doctor who performed the abortion. But responsible journalists do their homework, and responsible news outlets make sure that stories like this are airtight before they are published.
The story went viral, with news outlets around the planet running the story. Officials from President Joe Biden on down weighed in. But as the story gained traction, some on the right began to question its validity. Earlier this week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost went on FOX News and questioned whether the story was real, saying there wasn't a "whisper" of evidence to support it. Yost later spoke to USA Today, doubling down on his doubts about the account. Others, such as Rep. Jim Jordan, also began calling the story fake.
Except it wasn't fake. On Tuesday, another of The Enquirer's sister papers, The Columbus Dispatch, reported on the arrest of a Columbus man in regards to the rape. All the shouting, the doubting and the accusations that the story was fabricated vanished. What remained was a very public record of people like Yost and Jordan, their feet in their mouths, having caused verbal abuse to a child and family that had already endured the unimaginable.
More: DeWine reacts to 10-year-old who traveled to Indiana for abortion: Assault is 'tragedy'
More: Ohio's six-week abortion ban becomes law hours after Supreme Court's Dobbs decision
Kevin Necessary is an illustrator and editorial cartoonist. His editorial cartoons appear Sundays in The Enquirer.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: It's Necessary: Yost puts his foot in mouth by doubting case of 10-year-old rape victim
