Joe “I am the Democratic Party” Biden jumped on an unsubstantiated story first published by the Indianapolis Star about a 10-year-old rape victim who could not obtain an abortion in Ohio due to the recent Supreme Court Dobbs decision. The story has been met with extreme skepticism, so when Biden trotted it out as fact, even leftie outlets like Snopes and the Wamazon Post were forced to fact-check it.
And they found the story not only unsubstantiated but unverifiable. Obviously, this is not to say that the story is not true, but there are enough holes in it—and enough doubt surrounding the source—that no one in any position of authority, much less the ostensible president of the United States, should be repeating it as if it were verified and accurate.
Biden states, in part: “This isn’t some imagined horror. It is already happening. Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the presidency (pregnancy) and maybe save her life.”
It was indeed reported, but did it happen?
The story seemed shaky from the start, but every major (and many minor) outlets ran with it because it confirmed their worst fears. Confirmation bias is rampant on the left (and not absent on the right), but this was particularly strange because the story was not verified, even apparently by the Indy Star.
The Washington Post fact check includes this little nugget (archive link):On July 1, the Indianapolis Star, also known as the IndyStar, published an article, written by the newspaper’s medical writer, about how women seeking abortions had begun traveling from Ohio to Indiana, where less restrictive abortion laws were still in place. “Patients head to Indiana for abortion services as other states restrict care,” the article was headlined.That was a benign headline. But it was the anecdotal beginning that caught the attention of other news organizations. The article said that three days after the June 24 court ruling, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, Caitlan Bernard, who performs abortions, received a call from “a child abuse doctor” in Ohio who had a 10-year-old patient who was six weeks and three days pregnant. Unable to obtain an abortion in Ohio, “the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard’s care,” the Star reported.The only source cited for the anecdote was Bernard. She’s on the record, but there is no indication that the newspaper made other attempts to confirm her account. The story’s lead reporter, Shari Rudavsky, did not respond to a query asking whether additional sourcing was obtained. A Gannett spokeswoman provided a comment from Bro Krift, the newspaper’s executive editor: “The facts and sourcing about people crossing state lines into Indiana, including the 10-year-old girl, for abortions are clear. We have no additional comment at this time.” [emphasis mine]
Shady, right? Reporting rumor and gossip as fact is not journalism. This is Kansas City Star bad.
Pretty much that.
Bernard declined to comment to WaPo.
Bernard declined to identify to the Fact Checker her colleague or the city where the child was located. “Thank you for reaching out. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information to share,” she said in an email.
Snopes ran into the same stone wall (archive link).
Dozens of Snopes readers searched our site or contacted us wondering whether that had actually happened. To find out, we reached out to Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist based in Indianapolis and who spoke to The Columbus Dispatch, about the headline-generating story. As of this writing, Bernard had not returned our request for an interview, and we had not been able to independently corroborate the abortion claim. If we receive additional information, will update this post.
Unsurprisingly, she also could not verify her story to the Daily Caller.
We all know that Biden makes up stories, tells gigantic lies, and is generally untrustworthy, but this isn’t him storming the beaches of Normandy while on a break from his gig as a long-haul trucker cum ivy league professor.
This is an unsubstantiated story angrily spat out during an already volatile time. The unhinged radical left is gunning for the Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe, and the Biden White House is not only defending their foot soldiers but is now wantonly throwing gas on the fire by citing as true something that is, at this point, highly questionable.
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