NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee congressman, in his first public comments since reports that he once urged a mistress to get an abortion, says that the woman turned out not to be pregnant.
Freshman Republican congressman Scott DesJarlais hasn't disputed a transcript of a recorded phone conversation in which he appears to urge the woman to terminate the pregnancy.
DesJarlais tells WTN-FM that there was no pregnancy and thus no abortion. He says the conversation came during a difficult time, as his marriage was ending, in 1999 and 2000.
On his website DesJarlais espouses a platform that opposes abortion.
His opponent in the congressional race, Democratic state Sen. Eric Stewart, says DesJarlais has, in Stewart's words, "proven over and over again that he cannot be trusted."