Why We Ask: Our mission and operations are funded 100% by conservatives like you. Please help us continue to extend Liberty to the next generation and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today.

July 19, 2022

Extreme Cases and Bad Law

There is a legal maxim that says hard cases make for bad law. It means “a general law is better drafted for the average circumstance.”

Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, pro-choice activists and their media allies have been on a campaign to influence public opinion that the decision was a mistake.

They apparently believed they had discovered an ideal case when the Indianapolis Star reported that a 10-year-old rape victim who lives in Ohio had gone to Indiana for an abortion because Ohio’s new abortion restrictions wouldn’t allow her to have one there. Like many other rush-to-judgment stories, this was untrue as there is a medical emergency exception in Ohio, though the state law is unclear, and it’s uncertain how it would even have been applied in this case.

No one could initially confirm the accuracy of the rape story. There was no police report and Ohio’s attorney general said he had heard nothing. Though Columbus police did receive a report on the rape from a local children’s services department in late June, no Ohio hospital reported treating the girl. Even Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler said he was skeptical about the case.

When details emerged proving the story true, there seemed to be less enthusiasm as to its usefulness to the pro-choice side. That’s because, according to ICE, the alleged rapist, 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes of Guatemala, entered the country illegally.

There are many questions about this case reporters should be asking.

First among them is how did Fuentes get to Ohio? Was he brought to the state on one of the Biden administration’s late-night flights that are distributing immigrants across the country?

Second, did Fuentes have a criminal record and was he a known sex offender?

Third, where did the alleged assaults occur? Police say Fuentes has admitted to raping the victim twice. If the rapes occurred in the girl’s home, where was her mother? Did she fail to exercise parental oversight? Did the assaults occur on different days?

Fourth, did the girl tell her mother about either incident? If she did, why didn’t her mother call the police and have Fuentes arrested? Police say she eventually called them. After the first assault, or the second? In a bizarre twist, the girl’s mother has denied the charges against Fuentes, even though police say he confessed.

Fifth, was Fuentes living with the girl’s mother as her boyfriend? If not, how did they meet? Where was the girl’s father?

There is a legal maxim that says hard cases make for bad law. It means an extreme case, such as this one, is a “poor basis for a general law that would cover a wider range of less extreme cases. In other words, a general law is better drafted for the average circumstance.”

The pro-choicers may be overreaching. Churches have been vandalized and burned. So have pregnancy help centers, which offer their services for free, unlike most abortion providers who charge a fee. A not-so-subtle anti-Catholicism has also been directed at Supreme Court justices who are Roman Catholic. Pro-lifers have countered by targeting abortion clinics and threatening the lives of abortion providers. Where will it end?

In their protests, pro-choicers don’t address the reasoning behind the majority opinion. They simply claim the ruling was “unconstitutional,” when the court ruled it was the original Roe decision that was unconstitutional.

No young girl — or grown woman — should be sexually assaulted. Those who are convicted of such a crime should suffer the strongest penalties, registered as sex offenders, or surgically altered so they are incapable of ever committing this crime again.

The 10-year-old girl deserves compassion, counseling and help in overcoming this double trauma. The authorities must answer the questions raised above and many other questions as more information about the case comes to light. The results of their investigation should be released to the public. which now has what appears to be incomplete information behind this tragedy.

©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.