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Tag: dave yost
Ohio Child Rape Suspect Busted — After Republicans Cast Doubt On Victim

Ohio Child Rape Suspect Busted — After Republicans Cast Doubt On Victim

The 10-year-old Ohio girl who was forced to travel to Indiana to have an abortion after she was impregnated through rape may finally get justice.

The highly-publicized saga was a direct consequence of the United States Supreme Court's forewarned June 24th reversal of Roe v. Wade, which retracted the constitutional right to abortion that was established in the 1973 landmark ruling. The court's precedent-shattering decision – one of several that were handed down last month – initiated a wave of so-called "trigger laws" to take effect in Republican-dominated states that either drastically limit, totally ban, or even criminalize the medical procedure.

The 27-year-old suspect, Gershon Fuentes, "was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He's since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio," The Columbus Dispatch reported on Wednesday.

"DNA from the clinic in Indianapolis is being tested against samples from Fuentes, as well as the child's siblings, to confirm contribution to the aborted fetus," the Dispatch explained.

The apprehension of Fuentes occurred nearly concurrently with a piece that was published late Tuesday by the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal's editorial board in which the paper's leaders expressed doubts about the veracity of the victim's claims.

"The tale is a potent post-Roe tale of woe for those who want to make abortion a voting issue this fall. One problem: There’s no evidence the girl exists. PJ Media’s Megan Fox was first to point this out, and so far no one has been able to identify the girl or where she lives," the editors wrote.

Journalist Bill Grueskin noted in a Twitter thread on Wednesday afternoon that Ohio's GOP Attorney General, Dave Yost, had also expressed skepticism about the girl's account.

"Every day that goes by the more likely that this is a fabrication. I know the cops and prosecutors in this state. There's not one of them that wouldn't be turning over every rock, looking for this guy and they would have charged him," said Yost, according to The Columbus Dispatch. "I'm not saying it could not have happened. What I'm saying to you is there is not a damn scintilla of evidence. And shame on the Indianapolis paper that ran this thing on a single source who has an obvious axe to grind."

After the news broke that Fuentes had been taken into custody, Yost proclaimed that "we rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets." Yost added that he was "absolutely delighted that this monster has been taken off the street. If convicted, he should spend the rest of his life in prison."

Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine shared similar sentiments to Yost's.

Despite the recent developments, however, neither Yost nor DeWine – both of whom face competitive reelection fights in the November midterms – has issued an apology.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Republican Attorneys General Break With Trump On Obamacare

Republican Attorneys General Break With Trump On Obamacare

Two Republican attorneys general broke with the Trump administration on Monday to stick up for Obamacare.

The health care law is currently under threat because a federal judge has ruled — in a decision that was widely mocked and greeted with horror even by many conservative legal scholars — that a new challenge to the legislation’s individual mandate should succeed in nullifying the entire Affordable Care Act. The individual mandate requires that everyone acquire health insurance, and it has already been ruled constitutional when the Supreme Court declared it a tax. But since the Republican-controlled Congress set the penalty for the mandate at $0, opponents of the law now claim that the whole of Obamacare should fall.

That federal judge’s decision is being appealed, and in a bizarre and reckless decision last week, the Trump Justice Department decided it would refuse to defend the Affordable Care Act. Tradition has typically dictated that the department should argue in favor of a congressionally passed law as long as there is a credible case to be made. Breaking with that precedent, the Trump administration risks throwing the whole nation’s health care system into chaos.

And Attorneys General Dave Yost of Ohio and Timothy Fox of Montana, both Republicans, aren’t on board with this move — which in addition to being callous and anomalous could prove to be a strategic disaster for the GOP in 2020. Yost and Fox oppose the mandate (which is entirely toothless now anyway), but they don’t want Obamacare’s key protections to fall.

They explained why they oppose the administration’s position and the previous ruling in a brief filed with Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals:

The court’s decision, if affirmed, will deprive millions of non-elderly Ohioans and Montanans of coverage for pre-existing conditions. It will also negatively affect countless others who organized their affairs in reliance on the Act’s many unrelated provisions. To be sure, the fact that a ruling has negative consequences does not mean it is wrong. Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall. But the District Court’s ruling is wrong, and its errors threaten harm to millions of people in the Buckeye and Treasure states. That is why Ohio and Montana are filing this brief.

The move is significant for a number of reasons. For one, it will give Democrats ammunition in their 2020 campaign — they can point to Republican attorneys general arguing on the record about how Trump’s threat to Obamacare could harm millions. But it also shows that Republicans know how vulnerable they are on this issue — and how fractured the party is in light of the Trump administration’s decision.

More broadly, it shows how even Republican officials will step up to defend government programs and guarantees once they are established. Despite all their anti-government rhetoric, many conservative officials know there’s little electoral advantage in taking away voters’ health care. And that bodes well for the future of other progressive initiatives; one day, we may even see Republican attorneys general defending Medicare for All in federal court.