Woman says 'pro-life' Texas Republican paid for multiple abortions

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who wrote Texas' abortion ban, has ended his reelection campaign after admitting a 17-year affair with the exotic dancer who's speaking out.

Texas State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake) during the Texas Rally for Life at the state capitol on Jan. 22, 2022. Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune

I rarely post on Fridays, assuming no one wants to read about politics as they finally break free from the work week. But I’m going to make a little exception today on account of my favorite thing in the world happening: a “pro-life” politician being exposed for having paid for multiple abortions. Praise be!

The subject of today’s tar-and-feathering is a Texas state representative with the most Italian name of all time, Rep. GIOVANNI CAPRIGLIONE, who happens to be the author of Texas’ “trigger ban.” That means Capriglione wrote the bill that effectively outlawed all abortions in Texas as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned, making them punishable by up to life in prison. Capriglione also supported a law making it a civil offense to “aid and abet” in an illegal abortion, including paying for someone to end their pregnancy in Texas.

Speaking of paying for abortions, that’s what Capriglione was apparently doing on the side while using his elected office to torture and prosecute pregnant women and doctors in Texas. The conservative news site Current Revolt published an interview with a former exotic dancer named Alex Grace today who claims that she had an affair with the lawmaker for 17 years and that over the course of that time, he “funded several abortions for his own personal gain.”

Let’s drop in the Chuck E. Cheese details from the Texas Tribune:

Grace said Capriglione gave her “gifts,” including cash payments. On one occasion, she said Capriglione gave her an address to meet up, but when she got there, it was a Chuck E. Cheese.

“He told me to go to the back of the building and next to the dumpster there would be a rubber mat. Look under it,” she recalls him telling her. “And under this rubber mat was an envelope with money.”

Grace said that as Capriglione moved into politics — he was elected to the House in 2012 — they began to drift apart and she began to see him more clearly. She said in 2019 or 2020, they had one phone call where she expressed her anger at his political stances and encouraged him to “stick to who you are.” He hung up, cut all their lines of communication and they never spoke again, Grace said.

“I wanted him to stand for what he truly believed,” she said in the interview. “If you are using abortions for your personal gain, if you are using women for your personal gain, why announce to the world that this isn't who you are?”

Capriglione admits that he had an affair “years ago” and ended his re-election campaign, which he had only announced a month ago, but denies paying for any abortions and is threatening to sue the very right-wing outlet that published this supposed hit piece. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) doesn’t appear to believe him, though, as he has already hilariously scrubbed a link from his website thanking Capriglione for authoring legislation to strengthen reporting requirements on abortion complications.

Our Italian cowboy now joins an illustrious list of fellow anti-abortion zealots in the Republican Party who were caught paying for their mistress’ abortions. “Family values” Rep. Scott Desjarlais (R-Tenn.) pressured two women, including his first wife and a patient he was sleeping with, to terminate their pregnancies. Scott Lloyd, the former head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement who personally blocked a 17-year-old migrant rape victim from having an abortion, reportedly drove an ex-girlfriend to get an abortion and paid for half of it. Elliot Broidy, the former RNC deputy finance chairman and a Republican mega donor, paid $1.6 million to a Playboy Playmate he cheated with after demanding that she have an abortion. And of course Republican presidential candidate Herschel Walker, who campaigned against abortion access, allegedly paid for one he demanded his girlfriend have in 93’. This list is surely far from complete—just a small sampling of the kind of men we have legislating and opining about women’s bodies in the name of "morality,” as women are literally bleeding out on hospital tables trying to prove they’re dying hard enough to qualify for lifesaving abortions under the new regime.

That’s all I have to say about that today, please go forth and enjoy your weekend.