A GOP House candidate in Virginia said she believes victims of rape are less likely to get pregnant because “it’s not something that’s happening organically.”
Yesli Vega, the GOP nominee running against Democrat Abigail Spanberger made the comments last month at a campaign stop in Stafford County.
Vega, a Prince William County supervisor and a sheriff’s deputy expressed support for banning abortions in Virginia then said, “the left will say, ‘Well what about in cases of rape or incest?’ 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,” according to an audio recording published by Axios.
An attendee then asked Vega if she had heard that it’s “harder for a woman to get pregnant if she’s been raped.”
“Well, maybe because there’s so much going on in the body. I don’t know. I 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. You’re forcing it. The individual, the male, is doing it as quickly — it’s not like, you know — and so I can see why there is truth to that. It’s unfortunate,” Vega responded.
Vega told Axios that she is a mother of two and is “fully aware of how women become pregnant.” Her campaign did not dispute the audio’s authenticity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 3 million women in the United States have experienced rape-related pregnancy during their lifetime.
Vega won the GOP primary last week to face Rep. Spanberger in the liberal-leaning 7th district of Virginia.
