GOP lawmaker apologizes for using the phrase ‘consensual rape’ during abortion debate, saying he misspoke
By Orion Donovan-Smith Orion Donovan-Smith Email Bio Follow May 17 at 7:29 PM A Republican Missouri legislator apologized Friday for saying that some sexual assaults are"consensual rapes” during a debate over a new, restrictive antiabortion bill.
The lawmaker, who was elected in 2018, made the remark while speaking on the State House floor, arguing that the measure’s eight-week window for abortions"gives [rape survivors] ample time” for the procedure. Critics say many women do not know they are pregnant until after eight weeks, and the bill provides no exceptions for rape or incest.
“Let’s just say someone goes out and they’re raped or they’re sexually assaulted one night after a college party — because most of my rapes were not the gentleman jumping out of the bushes that nobody had ever met,” Hovis said."That was one or two times out of a hundred. Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes, which were all terrible.”
Hovis later told The Washington Post that he misspoke and said he believes “there was no such thing as consensual rape.”“When a rape is reported, and I’ll speak for myself, you always take the word of the victim," he said.
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