WaPo Fact-Checker Torched Over Analysis of Story on 10-Year-Old Rape Victim

Critics are blasting Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler for his analysis of a story about a 10-year-old rape victim.

Earlier this month, Kessler published a fact-check titled, “A one-source story about a 10-year-old and an abortion goes viral.”

In the piece, Kessler mentions a report from the Indianapolis Star.

Kessler explained the article said three days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, “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.”

He added, “Unable to obtain an abortion in Ohio, ‘the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard’s care,’ the Star reported.”

Kessler noted the only source cited was Bernard.

“She’s on the record, but there is no indication that the newspaper made other attempts to confirm her account,” Kessler wrote.

Concluding his article, Kessler acknowledged the story is “very difficult” to check.

“With news reports around the globe and now a presidential imprimatur, however, the story has acquired the status of a ‘fact’ no matter its provenance. If a rapist is ever charged, the fact finally would have more solid grounding,” Kessler wrote.

The fact-check was then updated after Gershon Fuentes was arrested.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that “police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions.”