A Missouri Republican who referenced “consensual rapes” during a debate over his state’s proposed eight-week abortion ban has now walked back the remark, reportedly claiming he misspoke.

While discussing the bill on the statehouse floor Friday, Rep. Barry Hovis, who serves the city of Jackson, cast doubt upon certain rape cases.

Reflecting on his time as an officer in the Cape Girardeau Police Department, Hovis said “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 a hundred.”

“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.”

According to The Associated Press, the comments sparked backlash from Democratic Rep. Raychel Proudie, who said “there is no such thing as consensual rape.”