A Missouri state representative defended women against a colleague's assertion that rapes could possibly be consensual.  

Last week, Missouri state lawmakers passed an anti-abortion bill, which makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest, on a 110-44 vote. Supporter Republican Rep. Barry Hovis seemingly blamed women for their own rapes while defending the bill's restrictive eight-week abortion ban. Missouri joins Ohio, Georgia and Alabama as the latest states to pass restrictive reproduction rights legislation.  

“Most of my rapes were not the gentlemen jumping out of the bushes that nobody had ever met. That was one or two times out of one hundred,” he said of his law enforcement career, per The Washington Post.

According to The Kansas City Star, Hovis was a 30-year veteran of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. In his time during his law enforcement career, he claimed many of the rape cases he worked involved men women knew.

“Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes, which were all terrible, but I sat in court — sat in court — when juries would struggle with those types of situations where it was a ‘he-said, she-said,’ and they would find the person not guilty. Unfortunate, if it really happened, but I had no control over that, because it was a judge or a jury making those decisions. But we’ll just say someone is sexually assaulted. They have eight weeks to make a decision.”

Soon after, Democratic colleague Rep. Raychel Proudie confronted Hovis on the House floor, saying “there is no such thing as consensual rape.”

Critics pointed out the ban does not take into account how women's bodies work. Women may not learn they are pregnant in the allotted timeframe. Proudie, a Ferguson politician, has come under fire for standing up for rape victims during the intense debate. 

Several angry critics have harassed her online sending vulgar messages. And many have unfollowed her on Twitter in protest. 

The Associated Press reports Hovis apologized for making the "consensual rape" statement. He claimed he misspoke and never intended to insinuate such a thing about the horrendous act. Hovis reportedly meant to say  “date rapes or consensual or rape.”


Abortion bansRep. Barry HovisRep. Raychel Proudie