Eight-year-old Ohio girl takes mother’s car and goes shopping at Target

No one was injured in Bedford escapade but child reportedly told officers she ‘struck a mailbox’ on her trip

a Target logo on a building

An eight-year-old girl in Ohio took her mother’s car and drove for more than 20 minutes along busy roads to get to a local Target store – where she promptly went shopping.

The drama unfolded when Bedford police got a missing-child call that was followed up by another call “concerning a small child driving east on Rockside Road”, local TV station WJW reported.

Dash-cam video recorded from a personal vehicle driving in the area shows a man calling the police and reporting a vehicle behind him “swerving everywhere”. The swerving driver finally comes into view of the dash-cam and the man then tells police dispatchers: “It looks like a kid!”

Law enforcement launched a search for the errant child driver and her vehicle and eventually traced both to the Target store, which was at least 20 minutes through busy traffic from her home.

The girl was found in the store and her family was contacted to come and get her. No one was injured in the escapade but the child reportedly told officers she “struck a mailbox” on her trip.

Man gets life sentence for raping girl, nine, forced to leave Ohio for abortion

Gerson Fuentes found guilty in case that dominated headlines when girl had to travel to Indiana for procedure banned in Ohio

The man found guilty of raping and impregnating a nine-year-old Ohio girl who later traveled to Indiana for an abortion has been sentenced to life in prison.

On Wednesday afternoon, 28-year-old Gerson Fuentes appeared at the Franklin county court of common pleas in Columbus, Ohio, where he entered a plea agreement which will allow him to be eligible to seek probation after 25 years. If granted parole, Fuentes would also have to register as a tier 3 sex offender and will have a lifetime of in-person verification every 90 days.

Last July, Fuentes was arrested and charged with raping the child in a case that dominated nationwide headlines after the girl, who turned 10 shortly after, was then forced to travel to neighboring Indiana for an abortion due to Ohio’s six-week “trigger ban” at the time which came into effect after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year.

According to a police investigator who testified at a hearing last year, Fuentes, who is from Guatemala and living in Columbus, Ohio, had confessed to raping the girl at least twice.

The case went on to gain further attention after the Indiana state attorney general launched an investigation into Caitlin Bernard, the doctor who performed the abortion on the child victim. The attorney general, Todd Rokita, accused Bernard of violating state law by not reporting the child’s abuse and violating patient privacy protections, despite Bernard’s refusal to discuss specific details of the victim’s case and identity.

In response, Bernard sued Rokita, accusing him of causing her reputation “irreparable harm”. Last November, Rokita asked a state medical board to discipline Bernard.

Following the abortion, Bernard became the center of a political firestorm after rightwing media called the story “not true” and a “lie”. At one point, a Republican commentator said “there is no proof” that the victim even “exists”.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden condemned the case of the child victim, saying last year: “She was forced to have to travel out of the state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life … Ten years old – 10 years old! – raped, six weeks pregnant, already traumatized, was forced to travel to another state.”

In May, the Indiana state medical board ruled that it will allow Bernard to continue practicing in Indiana and that she will not have to lose her license. It also found Bernard not guilty of violating reporting requirements about child abuse in the case. However, the board did rule that Bernard violated patient privacy laws in discussing the case with the media. It ultimately voted to issue a letter of reprimand to Bernard and fines of $3,000.

10-year-old rape victim forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for abortion

Case places prominent anti-abortion figures in position of balancing rights of women and girls while defending restrictions

An abortion rights protester holds a sign at a rally in Columbus, Ohio.

The case of a 10-year-old child rape victim in Ohio who was six weeks pregnant, ineligible for an abortion in her own state, and forced to travel to Indiana for the procedure has spotlighted the shocking impact of the US supreme court ruling on abortion.

The story of the girl came to light three days after the court overturned a nationwide right to terminate pregnancy, and Ohio’s six-week “trigger ban” came into effect.

Dr Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, said she had received a call from a colleague doctor in Ohio who treats child abuse victims and asked for help. Indiana’s lawmakers have not yet banned or restricted abortion, but they are likely to do so when a special session of the state assembly convenes later this month.

Abortion providers like Bernard say they are receiving a sharp increase in the number of patients coming to their clinics for abortion from the neighboring states where such procedures are now restricted or banned.

“It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks we will have no ability to provide that care,” Bernard told the Columbus Dispatch.

But the case of the 10-year-old girl has placed prominent anti-abortion political figures in the position of balancing the rights of women and girls – including abuse victims – while defending abortion restrictions.

Republican governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, mentioned as a potential running mate to Donald Trump in 2024, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that she found it to be “incredible” that “nobody’s talking about the pervert, horrible and deranged individual that raped a 10-year-old”.

Abortions are now criminal acts in South Dakota “unless there is appropriate and reasonable medical judgment that performance of an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female”. Cases of incest and rape are not an exception under South Dakota’s law as it stands.

On Friday, the state also banned medical abortion by telemedicine and increased the penalty for the unlicensed practice of medicine when performing abortions.

Dana Bash, CNN’S State of the Union host, pressed Noem on whether it was right for a 10-year-old rape victim who was pregnant to have to cross state lines for a legal abortion.

Seeming to try to deflect, Noem said the rape of children is “an issue that the supreme court has weighed … as well”, adding that the public should also be “addressing those sick individuals [who] do this to our children”.

Asked if she would seek to have the law changed if a similar case occurred in her state, Noem replied: “I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy. There’s more that we have got to do to make sure that we really are living a life that says every life is precious, especially innocent lives that have been shattered, like that 10-year-old girl.”

Asked if the girl should have to have the baby, Noem responded that “every single life – every single life is precious. This tragedy is horrific. But, in South Dakota, the law today is that the abortions are illegal, except to save the life of the mother.”

But asked if allowing an abortion to be be performed on a 10-year-old would be considered as protecting the life of the mother, Noem did not rule out that interpretation.

“Yes, that situation, the doctor, the family, the individuals closest to that will make the decisions there for that family,” she said, returning to the issue that for many Republicans is the central focus of the abortion debate.

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