A recent editorial by the Youngstown Vindicator:

Across the country, public officials and social media trolls revealed their true natures in the most nauseating of ways as the story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl became national news. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, Ohio was one of those states in which “near-total restrictions,” to use the Associated Press’s description, went into effect almost instantly.

So, the 10-year-old girl, who had been raped and was pregnant, had to travel to Indiana for an abortion. A doctor’s lament about the situation went viral and Ohio politicians got ugly.

“Another lie. Anyone surprised?” U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tweeted.

Even Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost felt compelled to tell a national news network that he had not heard “a whisper” from law enforcement in Ohio about any reports or arrests made in connection with such a case.

Forget about your opinions on Roe v. Wade. The merits of that ruling have nothing to do with the degree to which their reaction to the possible rape and impregnating of this 10-year-old girl — TEN! — reveal the horrifying, aggressive and extraordinarily backward thinking of some of those who are charged with making and enforcing our laws.

And yes, law enforcement was working on arresting and charging an Ohio man for the rape of that little girl. Her story was not a lie. Much as they appear to wish it wasn’t true — that such things simply don’t happen in Ohio and all over the country — our elected officials are doing us a disservice if they are so desperate not just to bury their heads in the sand but go on the offensive after tragedies like this one.

Angry public voices such as Jordan’s show us a lot about those folks’ understanding of the real world, and what happens to real people. It shows us how they react when that nasty real world comes in contact with the ideology they’re not really ready to defend.

At best it is irrational and reckless.

At worst it is proof voters have a decision to make about elected officials who are working toward a purpose that looks nothing like what is best for Ohioans and Americans.

— Youngstown Vindicator, July 18, 2022.