Recordings show Va. swing district candidate seeks ‘total ban’ on abortion

Made surreptitiously by two abortion rights supporters posing as abortion foes, the recordings seem intended to pin Stirrup down on an issue that Republicans in some swing districts would like to sidestep but Democrats hope to make a rallying cry in Nov. 7 General Assembly elections.

With control of both chambers up for grabs, about a dozen highly competitive races, including this one in part of Prince William County, will end up determining whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has the political muscle next year to roll back abortion rights in Virginia — the only Southern state that has not tightened restrictions on the procedure since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.

Stirrup did not dispute the authenticity of the recordings, which his campaign said he was unaware of until contacted by The Post Wednesday. But he said in a text message to The Post that he does not expect to find support in Richmond for outlawing abortion entirely and that he would push instead to ban the procedure after 15 weeks, with some exceptions.

“I’m a practicing Catholic who believes in protecting life,” Stirrup wrote in the text message. “While there are differing opinions on this issue, I believe we can bring Virginians together around a consensus position to protect life at 15 weeks — when an unborn child can feel pain — with reasonable exceptions after that point for rape, incest, and life of the mother. This is a far more reasonable position than Democrats have staked out, which is one of no limits whatsoever at any time.”

On the recordings, Stirrup calls the 15-week ban that Youngkin has pursued a more politically “acceptable” goal than an outright ban and “a starting point,” but he is also dismissive of that cutoff, saying it “really doesn’t save that many lives.”

“We’ve dehumanized life for 60 years in this country, and over 60 million children are being eliminated,” he is recorded as saying, referring to an estimate of U.S. abortions during the near half-century under Roe, the landmark ruling that had legalized the procedure nationwide. “It’s just crazy. Like, at what point — how many do we have to do? … We have the craziest, most liberal abortion laws in the world. I mean, like, same as North Korea and China, and it’s just, you know, we’re barbarian.”

Josh Thomas, the Democrat running against Stirrup, said the Republican’s support for a complete ban shows a “blatant disregard for the rights and freedoms of women in Prince William County and across Virginia.”

“We know that whoever represents the 21st House District in Richmond this January could be the deciding vote on abortion access in Virginia,” Thomas said in an email to The Post. “The people of this district deserve a legislator who believes that medical decisions should be between a woman and her medical provider, not politicians, as my opponent would have it.”

Thomas laid out his own position on abortion in an interview with The Post Wednesday, saying he supports keeping the state’s abortion laws as they are. That sets him apart from many Virginia Democrats, who in recent years have pushed unsuccessfully to lift a state requirement that three doctors sign off on late-term abortions.

Abortion is lawful in Virginia during the first and second trimesters of a pregnancy, through about 26 weeks. It is allowed in the third trimester only if three doctors certify that continuing the pregnancy is “likely to result in the death of the woman or substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman,” state code says.

“There are laws currently in place,” Thomas said. “That’s a framework that’s been working and the one I’d like to still have this year, next year and in the future.”

Stirrup’s comments on abortion resemble those made by Youngkin, a potential 2024 presidential candidate who has publicly backed a 15-week ban but has occasionally staked out more ambitious antiabortion goals in private. During his 2021 campaign for governor, Youngkin went mum on abortion after securing the GOP nomination on a promise to “protect the life of every Virginia child born and unborn.” A surreptitious video recording made by a liberal activist captured him saying that he would go “on offense” against abortion if he won the Executive Mansion but that he had to keep his views quiet for fear of alienating independents.

Fond of saying that “Virginians elected a pro-life governor,” Youngkin refused to specify his goals on the subject until June 2022 — five months into his term and just moments after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Youngkin, who happened to be meeting with The Post’s editorial board as the decision came down, said he would pursue a ban after 15 weeks, with exceptions, and would be willing to settle for a 20-week cutoff to get a bill out of the divided Capitol, where Democrats narrowly lead the Senate and Republicans have a slim majority in the House.

But days later in an online forum organized by the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia to celebrate the fall of Roe, Youngkin characterized his proposed 15-week ban as the fallback and indicated that he would push for stricter limits if Republicans hold the House and flip the Senate in this year’s elections.

“Any bill that comes to my desk I will sign happily and gleefully in order to protect life,” he said.

The open 21st District seat Stirrup — whom Youngkin endorsed in the primary — and Thomas are vying for is one of just seven in the House that the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project rates as “competitive.” It went blue in the governor’s race in 2017 but flipped red for Youngkin four years later.

Democrats are betting that vigorous support for abortion rights will help them in swing districts across the state, just as it fueled some blue wins around the country in midterms last year and on Tuesday led to the defeat of a Republican-backed referendum in Ohio that would have made it harder to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

Public polling on abortion has been muddled, with some Virginia voters saying they oppose new restrictions even as they voice support for Youngkin’s proposed 15-week ban.

A Washington Post-Schar School poll released in April found that most Virginia voters oppose the idea of tightening access to abortions. Overall, 34 percent said abortion laws should “remain as they are,” and 41 percent said they should be “less strict,” while 17 percent said abortion laws should be made “more strict.”

The respondents were not reminded of the details of Virginia’s current law, however. When asked whether they would support a 15-week ban with the exceptions Youngkin had proposed, 49 percent of voters said they would support it, and 46 percent said they were opposed.

Stirrup, 66, a former Prince William County supervisor and chief of staff to then-Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), does not mention abortion on his campaign website. His issues page lists four priorities: Safer communities, lower cost of living, stronger schools and the protection of rural areas and historic battlefields from “unchecked data center developers.”

Thomas, 35, a commercial real estate lawyer who served in Afghanistan with the Marines, lists eight priorities on his campaign site, including “women’s rights,” which references the fall of Roe.

“He will fight against any attempts to restrict women’s access to reproductive healthcare, and will work to expand access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare for all Virginians,” it says.

In the May 18 recording, a young woman tells Stirrup she is upset by abortion and asks about his plans if elected.

“I would support a 100 percent ban,” he says. “It seems like the kind of acceptable … position has been about 15 weeks, but that really doesn’t save that many lives. It’s a start, you know, and I know the left gets really, you know, animated about this, ‘Oh you’re banning abortion.’ Abortion will always be legal in the District of Columbia and Maryland. Women will always have that option.”