Bob Marshall regrets...Not.

As recently blogged, state Del. Bob Marshall invoked a lot of criticism for making the idiotic comment that women who terminated their first pregnancy were more likely to have disabled children. Sensing trouble, the cornered politician hedges:

"I don't believe that disabled kids are God's punishments, period, end of discussion," said Marshall. "I have defended disabled kids. I was almost kicked out of the Republican caucus because I forced a vote on a bill, because autism parents did not get a vote in a subcommittee."

Marshall insisted that his comments had been taken out of context. (Here's the exact quote, which I read to him, and he said sounded accurate: "The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.") However, he said, he was discussing an increased rate of birth defects, not all birth defects in and of themselves.

Marshall cited articles in medical journals, which he claimed showed an increased rate of cerebral palsy, low birth weights and premature births among women who have had prior induced abortions.

Got that? Translation: "I totally did not mean what you heard me say, because I say other stuff sometimes, and besides, I can back up the thing I said!"

For a refresher, what he said is here:



For the smart people reading my blog at home who are also peeved that he's misinterpreting the results of a study, it's okay to yell "Correlation is not causation!" at the screen. I just did, and I feel a little better.