Virginia Delegate Robert Marshall had this to say Thursday.

“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.”

“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

Suggesting that those who had abortions are responsible for a handicapped child later did not go well.

Today, there is the retraction.

“A story by Capital News Service regarding my remarks at a recent press conference opposing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood conveyed the impression that I believe disabled children are a punishment for prior abortions.”

“No one who knows me or my record would imagine that I believe or intended to communicate such an offensive notion. I have devoted a generation of work to defending disabled and unwanted children, and have always maintained that they are special blessings to their parents.”

Once again a loose-tongued legislator is caught saying something he later disavows.

Despite Marshall’s claim that he never “intended to communicate such an offensive notion,” it looks clear cut. In answering his own question why handicap births have “increased dramatically,” Marshall answers “nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”

How much clearer does it need to be?