Yesterday, the Republican majority in the Missouri State House passed an abortion ban after the eighth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The women wouldn’t be punished, but HB 126 says doctors would face up to 15 years in prison.

The bill is expected to be signed into law given the GOP grip on the state’s legislature and governor’s seat. As with Alabama, the goal is to fight any lawsuits until Brett Kavanaugh can overturn Roe v. Wade.

But during the debate over the bill, GOP State Rep. Barry Hovis showed once again why men shouldn’t be making health decisions for women, especially when they don’t have any clue what they’re talking about.

Hovis used to be a law enforcement official with the Cape Girardeau Police Department. In an attempt to downplay the seriousness of rape, he tried to argue that he rarely saw such cases during his 30 years in the department.

What he actually said was this:

Well… here’s Republican Missouri State Rep. Barry Hovis using “consensual rapes” as a justification for helping to pass Missouri’s new abortion bill. @ksdknews pic.twitter.com/zvUgg8pTgv — Jacob Long (@JacobLongTV) May 17, 2019

… most of the sexual assaults he handled before retiring from law enforcement weren’t strangers “jumping out of the bushes.” “That was one, two times out of 100,” he said. “Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes, which were all terrible.”

See?! Not a big deal at all. They were usually just date rapes. Or rapes that the women wanted. Therefore, even underage girls should be forced to give birth against their will.

The ghost of Todd Akin lives on…

Hovis has been trying to downplay the absolutely insanity of his comments for the past several hours.

Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat, quickly rebuked him. “There is no such thing, no such thing as consensual rape,” she said to applause from the chamber. Hovis later told The Washington Post that he misspoke and said he believes there is “no such thing as consensual rape.”

He misspoke. I guess he only meant to be dismissive of women who are victims of date rape, so it’s okay.

Actually this is what he meant to say:

Hovis later told The Associated Press that he meant to say “date rapes or consensual or rape.”

HOW IS THAT ANY BETTER?!

Actually, it’s not even the only correction he needed to make. When he began that part of his monologue, he claimed that “Most of my rapes were not the gentlemen jumping out of the bushes.”

Gentlemen.

Sure, some guys who jump out of the bushes to attack women are the worst, but the guys he dealt with were perfect gentlemen…

Hovis may say he misspoke, but his correction is hardly any better. The fact is Republicans don’t give a damn about what happens to women; they just know women need to suffer more if they get pregnant against their will or desire.

Anyone who still votes for a Republican, at any level of government, in any part of the country, is complicit in this behavior. They either don’t care about women, or they’re willing to throw women under the bus as a means to some other goal. It’s reprehensible either way.

A few years ago, what Hovis said would have been an unforgivable gaffe. Now it barely registers because there’s no shortage of Republican men who are willfully ignorant about how women get pregnant and proud to broadcast their idiocy in the name of Jesus, because they believe the imaginary rights of a fetus always matter more than the safety of women.

