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Axios released audio on Monday, June 27, from an exchange it said Vega had with a supporter at a campaign rally in Stafford last month. The person asks Vega in the leaked recording: “I’ve actually heard it’s harder for a woman to get pregnant if she’s been raped. Have you heard that?”
"Well, maybe because there's so much going on in the body," Vega responds, per Axios. "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."
Data does not bear this out, however. The CDC said that 3 million women in the U.S. will become pregnant from a rape during their lifetime.
The Supreme Court's decision last week to overturn Roe v. Wade had made abortion a top issue in the midterm elections in November. The decision rolled back 50 years of federal abortion protections and privacy precedents. Vega's comments came before the Friday, June 24, ruling, but the country had expected it for months after a draft of the decision leaked earlier this year.
Several states are considering some form of abortion restrictions or bans after the decision. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked state legislators to pass a ban on abortions 15 weeks after conception. Youngkin asked them to carve out exceptions for rape, incest, or if the mother's life is at stake.
Vega splits with her GOP brethren on this point. She seems to believe that a rape exception isn't necessary since pregnancy is unlikely. In the leaked audio, the Prince William County auxiliary sheriff's deputy and former Alexandria police officer offered her experience in law enforcement as expertise on the topic.
“The left will say, ‘Well, what about in cases of rape or incest?’ ” Vega said earlier in the event. “I’m a law enforcement officer. I became a police officer in 2011. I worked one case where, as a result of a rape, the young woman became pregnant.”
Vega declined interview requests on the leaked audio, but she gave a statement to The Washington Post.
“Liberals are desperate to distract from their failed agenda of record-high gas and grocery prices, and skyrocketing crime,” she said. “For all the left-wing bloggers and media, as a mother of two children, yes I’m fully aware of how women get pregnant.”
Speaking to The Post, Rep. Spanberger called Vega's comments in the recording "devoid of truth (and) shamefully disrespectful toward victims of rape."
Spanberg promised to push to reinstate federal abortion protections.
“I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure a woman’s right to choose and the fundamental right to privacy,” Spanberger told The Washington Post.
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