A Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is under fire for using the term “consensual rape” while defending an abortion ban proposal.

“Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes,” Missouri Rep. Barry Hovis said Friday about the sexual assaults he handled during his time as a police officer. “I’d sit in court when juries would struggle with those situations, where it was a ‘he-said-she-said,’ which was unfortunate if it really happened.”

“There is no such thing — no such thing — as consensual rape,” Rep. Raychel Proudie fired back.

The House passed the ban on abortions of fetuses older than eight weeks shortly after Hovis’ comments.

Hovis later apologized for the remarks, telling the Kansas City Star he agrees “there is no such thing as consensual rape.”