February 07, 2008 04:40 PM UTC

Rep. Liston: Pregnant Teens are "Sluts"

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Liston mea culpas, but not before lady GOP representatives jointly threaten his manhood (so to speak).

You’d think Republicans could get through at least one legislative session without insulting someone with painfully insensitive remarks. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports:

A Colorado Springs lawmaker referred Wednesday to unmarried, pregnant teenagers and the fathers as “sluts” who should be made to feel ashamed for their lack of morals.

Rep. Larry Liston’s remarks were made during a discussion with health care professionals at a Republican legislative caucus lunch about Colorado’s high teen pregnancy rate.

“In my parents’ day and age, they were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are. There was at least a sense of shame,” Liston said of unmarried teen parents. “There’s no sense of shame today. Society condones it. . . . I think it’s wrong. They’re sluts…” [Pols emphasis]

Rep. Stella Garza Hicks, a Colorado Springs Republican who was at the meeting, said afterward she was “disturbed” and “offended” by his use of the term “sluts” to refer to young people who have to live with a mistake they’ve made.

The comments came as representatives from the Colorado Health Foundation went over a 2007 report card in which the foundation gave Colorado high marks for the health of its aging population, but lower grades for the health care in the state for newborns and children.