Idaho lawmaker ‘embarrassed,’ sorry for comparing women to dairy cows – East Idaho News

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Newly elected Idaho Rep. Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome, apologized Thursday for saying in his first committee assembly that have milking cows knowledgeable his opinions on ladies’s well being.

Nelsen mentioned he’s “embarrassed” and “offended others.”

“The way in which I phrased my assertion about ladies and reproductive rights yesterday utterly missed the mark,” Nelsen mentioned in an emailed assertion. “I’m deeply sorry. I acknowledge the error and decide to doing higher sooner or later.”

Throughout the Home Agricultural Affairs Committee’s first assembly of the legislative session, Nelsen mentioned he’s a “lifelong dairy farmer,” who has “milked a number of cows” and spends “most of my time strolling behind traces of cows.”

“So if you’d like some concepts on repro (replica) and the ladies’s well being factor, I’ve some particular opinions,” he mentioned with amusing.

The remark drew sharp rebuke on social media in addition to nationwide media consideration.

“Allow us to be clear: Politicians like Jack Nelsen haven’t any enterprise mandating our reproductive well being care selections. Interval,” the Idaho Democratic Occasion said in a tweet.

Nelsen is a music trainer and former county planning and zoning and water useful resource commissioner from the Magic Valley. Earlier than defeating Democrat Karma Metzler Fitzgerald in one in all Idaho’s few swing districts in November’s election, Nelsen campaigned on native management of water and colleges and preserving agriculture land.

He additionally mentioned throughout his marketing campaign that the federal government shouldn’t contain itself in abortion care, distancing himself from fellow Idaho Republicans, who enacted a near-total ban on abortion.

In his apology, Nelsen mentioned the ladies in his life have taught him “power, resilience, integrity, arduous work, pleasure and love.”

“I completely respect ladies and the correct to decide on their very own well being care,” he mentioned. “I’ve at all times operated and can proceed to function underneath the usual that the federal government doesn’t belong within the physician’s workplace.”