On Friday, the state of Missouri’s Republican-led House passed a bill that would ban abortion laws at eight weeks, Global News reported.
If enacted, the ban will join several other state’s laws as the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, including Alabama which recently made headlines after passing a near-total ban on abortion .
While lawmakers argued the ban, Missouri State Representative Barry Hovis made his case.
According to Buzzfeed News , the Republican stood up to argue in favor of the ban, which has no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
Hovis’ argument drew on his experience as a former law enforcement official.
He said that most of the sexual assault cases he had dealt with throughout his career weren’t between strangers but between people who were familiar with each other.
“Most of my rapes were not gentleman jumping out of the bushes that nobody had ever met.”
He told the members of the floor that these particular cases were seen “one or two times out of 100.”
Rather, he said the majority of the rape cases he encountered were “date rapes or consensual rapes.”
Which then begged the question, does congressman Hovis truly understand what “rape” means? Its literal definition is that it is not consensual.
Watch the video of Hovis’ statement below.
Following Hovis’ claims, Democratic Representative Raychel Proudie took the floor.
She told members of the floor that despite what Hovis seems to believe, there is in fact “no such thing as consensual rape.”
People were furious once Hovis’ statement hit the public.
In response to the Twitter video which showed the lawmaker’s claims, many users commented their outrage.
“This is what happens when men control the conversation,” one user wrote . “When privilege controls the conversation. When ignorance controls the conversation.”
Another user pointed out what they feel is another huge problem with Hovis’ statement.
In response, another Twitter user sarcastically replied, “The guy takes you to dinner, it’s the least you can do right?”
Some pointed out the blatant contradiction in Hovi’s “consensual rape” claims.
Cold fire, hot snow, silent sound.
We can go on and on in the same way, but it basically amounts to the same thing: these words do not go together.
Hovis has since apologized for his remarks, claiming he misspoke.
“It’s my apology if I didn’t enunciate the word ‘or,'” he told the Associated Press , claiming what he meant to say was “date rapes, consensual, or rape.”
In an interview with KCTV5 he said, “I’ve never believed that. When you talk about consensual rape there’s no such thing. It’s either consensual or it’s rape.”
h/t: Buzzfeed News
