Over the last decade, a great many Republicans — both officeholders and candidates — have struggled publicly in response to questions about pregnancies resulting from rape. As we’ve discussed, it’s tempting to assume that all GOP candidates, no matter how vehement their opposition to reproductive rights, would now know to prepare a compelling answer.
It just doesn’t seem to be working out that way. Axios reported yesterday:
Yesli Vega, the Republican nominee running against Democrat Abigail Spanberger for Congress, downplayed the possibility of becoming pregnant as a result of rape when asked about her stance on abortion at a campaign stop last month, according to audio obtained by Axios.
At issue are two clips from the Virginia Republican, who is currently a supervisor and sheriff’s deputy in Prince William County. In the first, Vega appears to defend her opposition to abortion rights by downplaying the likelihood of pregnancies from rapes.
“The left will say, ‘Well what about in cases of rape or incest?’” she said. “I’m a law enforcement officer. I became a police officer in 2011. I’ve worked one case where as a result of a rape, the young woman became pregnant.”
The second clip was even more jarring. An unidentified person asked, “I’ve actually heard that it’s harder for a woman to get pregnant if she’s been raped. Have you heard that?”
Vega replied. “Well maybe, because there’s so much going on in the body, I don’t know. I haven’t, haven’t, you know, seen any studies but if I’m processing what you’re saying it wouldn’t surprise me, because it’s not something that’s happening organically, right? It’s forcing it.”
After the unidentified questioner suggested the body “shuts down,” the congressional candidate added, “Yeah, yeah, and then the individual, the male, is doing it as quickly, it’s not like, you know, and so I can see why maybe there’s truth to that.”
Vega’s campaign did not dispute the authenticity of the recording, and as a New York Times report noted, the Republican has not said directly whether she stands by her bizarre public comments.
This may very well have an impact on the closely watched race in Virginia’s 7th congressional district. Republicans see incumbent Abigail Spanberger as vulnerable in a highly competitive, newly redrawn district, but a controversy like this one is likely to linger.
Indeed, the Democratic incumbent wasted little time yesterday drawing attention to Vega’s comments yesterday, calling the Republican’s rhetoric “extreme,” “ignorant, “and “devoid of truth.”
But stepping back, it’s just as notable how common such controversies are.
As longtime readers may recall, it was 10 years ago when Republican Todd Akin famously declared, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” The Missourian was, of course, in a competitive U.S. Senate race at the time, which he ended up losing. Two months later, in Indiana’s U.S. Senate race, Republican Richard Mourdock argued that when a woman is impregnated by a rapist, “it’s something God intended.” He soon after lost, too. As the dust settled on the 2012 election cycle, and Akin and Mourdock lost their red-state contests, Kellyanne Conway was brought in to advise House GOP candidates and officeholders on the issue. Conway — at the time, a prominent Republican pollster, years before she joined Donald Trump’s political operation — implored her partisan allies: Stop talking about rape. Ten years later, some in the party appear to have forgotten the lesson. Last fall, for example, J.D. Vance, a Republican U.S. Senate hopeful said he’d support abortion bans, even if they applied to pregnancies resulting from rape. The Ohioan described such pregnancies as “inconvenient.” It was a few months later when Garrett Soldano, a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, also said he’d oppose rape exceptions for abortion bans. “How about we start inspiring women in the culture to let them understand and know how heroic they are and how unbelievable they are that God put them in this moment,” he said earlier this year. Two months ago, Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt created a controversy of her own when she said a hypothetical teenager traumatized by rape would have the “opportunity” to help that child become a “productive human being.” As Vega adds her name to this unfortunate list, it’s hardly unreasonable to wonder how many more Republicans will echo such rhetoric as the election season unfolds over the next several months.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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