Another Day, Another Resignation

Republican Congressman from Arizona, Trent Franks, announced that he is resigning from Congress because he says, at first, he committed the sin of discussing surrogate motherhood with two female aids:

“We are in an unusual moment in history — there is a collective focus on a very important problem of justice and sexual impropriety. It is so important that we get this right for everyone, especially for victims, but in the midst of this current cultural and media climate, I am deeply convinced I would be unable to complete a fair House Ethics investigation before distorted and sensationalized versions of this story would put me, my family, my staff, and my noble colleagues in the House of Representatives through hyperbolized public excoriation.”

Franks insists he never molested any female staffer, but the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into allegations that Franks “engaged in conduct that constitutes sexual harassment and/or retaliation for opposing sexual harassment.”

See, what he did was to ask some female congressional staffers if they would like to carry his baby for he and his wife, and he even offered one woman $5 million if she would bear his child.

That woman, an aide to Trent Franks, was encouraged to tell her story to, to bring the story to the attention of the House Republican leadership and later told investigators that Franks had approached her with papers that he described as a written contract for her to review. She rejected his offer and then felt she was being sidelined in his office because she’d refused, and so she eventually left.

And when that part of the story broke, that the socially conservative congressman would bypass all legitimate avenues of obtaining a surrogate and instead pay an employee $5 million for a baby, Franks said he would resign at the end of January; that story then changed when he said he would immediately step down, citing his wife’s hospitalization.

She was probably being treated for shock upon learning her husband was willing to pay a staffer to carry his child.

While Franks’ statement did not detail the circumstances of the “discussion” of buying a baby, it is clear that he also asked other staffers if they would serve as a surrogate mother for his child; those other women also left his employ after his, um, offer.

In his statement Franks said he never “physically intimidated, coerced, or had, or attempted to have, any sexual contact with any member of my congressional staff.” He just took a female staffer into his office and tasked her to carry a baby for him, out of the blue.

But let’s be clear: offering a woman, or several women, money, up to five million dollars, to carry his child, is not a discussion of surrogacy. It is a form of sexual harassment and kind of sickening coming from a man who declares himself a Christian conservative.

PS Franks and his wife had twins via surrogacy at a California fertility clinic, so why he suddenly decided to make it office chatter and offer money to female staffers is confusing.

Why not just go about it the way you’d already done it before? It makes me think there might be more to this story, which might also be why Franks left office so quickly.

Washington Times

Washington Post