# Pro-life Republican urges mistress to get abortion. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 11, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389 "2012-10-11T04:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/1 "2012-10-11T04:28:21Z")
Ahhhh, more hypocrisy from the party of family “values.” Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, who is running for re-election, apparently recorded a conversation in 2000 in which he told his mistress to get an abortion. Story here: > **[GOP Congressman Doctor Pushed Mistress Patient To Get Abortion](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scott-desjarlais-abortion-pro-life_n_1953136?1349878415=)** > > GOP Congressman Doctor Pushed Mistress Patient To Get Abortion > [@](#): > > “You told me you’d have an abortion, and now we’re getting too far along without one,” DesJarlais tells the woman at one point in the call while negotiating with her over whether he’ll reveal her identity to his wife. They then discuss whether he will accompany her to a procedure to end the sort of life the congressman now describes as “sacred.” > > “You told me you would have time to go with me and everything,” the woman complains. > > “I said, if I could, I would, didn’t I? And I will try,” DesJarlais says. “If I can [find] time, you’re saying you still will?” > > “Yeah,” the woman answers. Apparently his mistress was also a patient of his back when he was still working as a doctor. He eventually did get divorced and the story also mentions this: > [@](#): > > The marriage appeared to fall apart for good at about the time DesJarlais made his recorded phone call, and he eventually admitted in court papers to at least four affairs. Court records indicate that at one point in the marriage, they had a “written agreement to date other people.” And to think, Anthony Weiner is out of work. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/2 "2012-10-11T04:44:15Z")
Damnable hypocrite. Any pro-life politician with this sort of thing in their past should get it out up front so that it doesn’t become an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/3 "2012-10-11T05:11:03Z")
He recorded the call himself? This guy is too _stupid_ to be in congress, or at least he would be if congress had minimal-intelligence eligibility rules. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/4 "2012-10-11T05:43:54Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > He recorded the call himself? > > This guy is too _stupid_ to be in congress, or at least he would be if congress had minimal-intelligence eligibility rules. There is no minimum intelligence to be in Congress, the opposite of progress. Anyway, I can think of a generalized style of conservative poster around here who would argue that this isn’t hypocrisy and that we don’t know the meaning of the word. After all, he was only engaging in free speech, not actual abortion. Only a woman and her doctor can be guilty of getting an abortion. A man can always urge it upon others as he sees fit as a prerogative of free speech. Or at least that is how I imagine it might go if one of our conservative experts on hypocrisy were to show up based on the usual conservative lawyerly style of parsing reality and logic. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/5 "2012-10-11T07:32:52Z")
[Another candidate is lowering the bar](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=668331) ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/6 "2012-10-11T09:49:29Z")
To be fair, that all happened like 10 years BEFORE he was elected, and it is conceivable that his views on abortion have changed since then. DesJarlais is still a schmuck, but a lot can happen in ten years. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/7 "2012-10-11T11:29:57Z")
> [@saje](#): > > To be fair, that all happened like 10 years BEFORE he was elected, and it is conceivable that his views on abortion have changed since then. > > DesJarlais is still a schmuck, but a lot can happen in ten years. If he had a “come to Jesus” moment since then, he would have done better revealing it himself. Not only does it prevent stuff like this from making a dent, but it’s a good story to tell. “I used to be a bad man. But then I saw the error of my ways and I’m doing everything I can to rectify the wrong.” That’s what true atonement is. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/8 "2012-10-11T13:18:04Z")
Oh I agree entirely. But I’m more incensed at his affair with a patient and the pressuring aspect than I am at the implied hypocrisy. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/9 "2012-10-11T13:31:10Z")
> [@saje](#): > > To be fair, that all happened like 10 years BEFORE he was elected, and it is conceivable that his views on abortion have changed since then. I see what you did there. > [@The Second Stone](#): > > Anyway, I can think of a generalized style of conservative poster around here who would argue that this isn’t hypocrisy and that we don’t know the meaning of the word. After all, he was only engaging in free speech, not actual abortion. Well, when one of them comes in here and claims that, you’ve got a trump card. Until then, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/10 "2012-10-11T13:33:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > He recorded the call himself? > > This guy is too _stupid_ to be in congress, or at least he would be if congress had minimal-intelligence eligibility rules. He needed to record it so he could let his wife listen to it: > [@](#): > > Davis said he ultimately confirmed the authenticity of the transcript himself last spring, almost by accident, when he met with Susan DesJarlais. > > Davis had been purged from his local voter rolls in a crackdown on voter fraud by the local GOP. He said that DesJarlais had heard about the purge, and wanted to talk to Davis, suspecting her ex-husband was behind it. > > “He had nothing to do with that – it was just some local pols,” Davis told The Huffington Post. But when he met with Susan, it gave him the opportunity to discuss the transcript and the phone call, which the doctor apparently thought would help repair the marriage. > > “She said he did it himself. She said the doctor did. She said, ‘He recorded it and let me listen to it,’” Davis said. “She confirmed to me that Scott DesJarlais is the one who actually did the recording, and let her listen to it.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/11 "2012-10-11T16:21:09Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > There is no minimum intelligence to be in Congress, the opposite of progress. > > Anyway, I can think of a generalized style of conservative poster around here who would argue that this isn’t hypocrisy and that we don’t know the meaning of the word. After all, he was only engaging in free speech, not actual abortion. Only a woman and her doctor can be guilty of getting an abortion. A man can always urge it upon others as he sees fit as a prerogative of free speech. > > Or at least that is how I imagine it might go if one of our conservative experts on hypocrisy were to show up based on the usual conservative lawyerly style of parsing reality and logic. You certainly won’t hear an argument of that type from me. The only thing that would make this not be hypocrisy would be the situation **saje** imagines: ten years ago, he was not pro-life, and now he is. But as **monsto** correctly observes, that claim won’t even seem credible unless he had already revealed his earlier personal stance… if he had previously crusaded against abortion by saying, “Before I knew how evil this was, I actually urged a woman to abort!” then there’s no hypocrisy. For him to claim it now is entirely too self-serving to be believable. So yeah, hypocrisy. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/12 "2012-10-11T18:15:34Z")
It’s not hypocrisy if you realize that he’s against abortion because he believes in controlling women, not because he loves fetuses so much. Once that becomes clear, it all makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/13 "2012-10-11T18:33:36Z")
The only moral abortion is my abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/14 "2012-10-11T18:40:13Z")
Of course, he was forced into this murder. If he had allowed the pregnancy, he would have been [put to death](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15579696&postcount=7212). ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/15 "2012-10-11T19:20:12Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > It’s not hypocrisy if you realize that he’s against abortion because he believes in controlling women, not because he loves fetuses so much. Once that becomes clear, it all makes sense. And: nailed it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pro-life-republican-urges-mistress-to-get-abortion/637389/16 "2012-10-11T20:40:27Z")
Anyone who thinks the “pro-life” people aren’t having abortions is deluded.