Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is being slammed for calling the story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who obtained an abortion after she was raped “another lie” in a since-deleted tweet.
It marks at least the second time the congressman from Ohio has been accused of ignoring a sexual assault in the Buckeye state.
The story of the 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and had an abortion in Indiana made national headlines. Due to the sensitive nature of the story, the source of it would not release the victim’s name, giving ample room for Republicans to cry foul and doubt the story.
Ohio Attorney General David Jost went on Fox News in the days following the story to declare that there had not been a case of rape similar to the young girls in the state and that Ohio’s laws would have allowed her to get an abortion.
But on Tuesday, the Columbus Dispatch reported on the arrest of 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes in connection to the rape. Fuentes has since been charged with felony rape of a minor under age 13 and is being held on a $2 million bond. Following the arrest news, conservatives proceeded to walk back their statements. The Wall Street Journal—which had published an editorial calling the story a “fanciful tale”—took its stance back. Jordan, for his part, just deleted his tweet.
This would be the second time Jordan has been accused of actively ignoring a sexual assault. The first time was while Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, where team physician Richard Strauss allegedly assaulted at least eight wrestlers. Some of the wrestlers on the team said that Jordan knew about the assaults and did nothing.
Jordan refused to cooperate with any investigations into Strauss, calling his accusers “pawns in a political plot.” Jordan allegedly engaged in witness tampering and intimidation by calling one of the accusers and attempting to get him to recant his statement that Jordan knew of the assaults. In 2019, a retired referee filed a lawsuit alleging that Jordan had dismissed his warnings of the assaults. Jordan called the referee “another person making a false statement.”
Right-wing reaction to the story has been roasted on Twitter. Jordan received a large chunk of the criticism.
“Why did Jim Jordan just delete this tweet?” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). “He would never try and cover up a sexual assault, would he?”
Jordan’s press secretary did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Dot.