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This Nov. 21, 2011 file photo shows Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., speaks in Spring Hill, Tenn. DesJarlais, a freshman congressman running for re-election on a pro-life platform urged his pregnant mistress to get an abortion a decade ago, according to a transcript of the recorded conversation.Photo by Associated Press /Chattanooga Times Free Press.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An endorsement from a Tennessee congressman who in a recorded phone conversation urged a mistress to get an abortion has vanished from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's website.
Freshman Rep. Scott DesJarlais, who opposes abortion rights, told a Nashville talk radio show Thursday that while there were many difficult elements to his 2001 divorce, "there was no pregnancy, and no abortion."
But DesJarlais did not dispute the transcript of a recorded phone conversation in which he urges the woman to terminate a pregnancy.
While the Tennessee Republican Party appears to be standing behind DesJarlais, other GOP leaders in the state like Gov. Bill Haslam and Sen. Lamar Alexander have declined to get involved.
The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
