In VA07, “Anti-abortion zeal […] may be toxic” to GOP Nominee Yesli Vega, Who Was Recorded “dismissing the likelihood of women becoming pregnant from rape”

Republican Yesli Vega’s (VA-07) position on reproductive rights – and the fundamental right to privacy – is far too extreme for the values and beliefs of Virginians.

Vega is facing local pressure after she was caught questioning whether victims of rape are less likely to become pregnant. Vega celebrated the end of Roe v. Wade and wants to ban abortion, but has refused to answer questions about if she would support exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother.

Her positions are way out of step with what most Americans believe, and her extremism will haunt her from now until November.

Virginia Mercury: Commentary: Anti-abortion zeal among rural GOP lawmakers may be toxic to Republicans running in suburbs
By Bob Lewis
July 18, 2022

• “Proposals from the GOP in Virginia are all over the map, from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s opening proffer to restrict abortion to, say, the first 15 to 20 weeks of pregnancy to Republican legislators clamoring to shut down abortions from the instant of conception, no exceptions.”
• “Republicans, particularly those representing culturally and politically conservative rural districts, made it clear they plan to roll back the clock. But to the 1920s?”
• “There was a time when rape and incest exceptions were accepted standards of compassion among most Republicans. Rigid absolutism on abortion, driven by the party’s hard-right conservative base – those who dominate primaries – has since gripped the GOP. Recent examples abound.”
• “Yesli Vega, the Republican nominee challenging Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger for her 7th District seat in Virginia, was caught on a recording last month dismissing the likelihood of women becoming pregnant from rape.”
• “It’s essentially the same medically discredited claim that ended the career of Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., in 2012. Vega, a police officer, said on the recording that she had ‘worked one case where, as a result of a rape, the young woman became pregnant.’”
• “Years of polling shows that the more extreme abortion policy gets – whether it be banning the procedure totally or allowing it almost up to birth – the less support it has.”
• “Frothing-at-the-mouth anti-abortion fervor may work for rural legislators. But their rhetoric doesn’t stop at their district boundaries. What may earn them a pat on the back in rural Virginia is toxic to Republicans in suburban or exurban swing districts for U.S. House seats this year and state legislative seats in 2023.”