CA Democrat Rep. Norma Torres Says She’s Tired of ‘Sex-Starved’ Male Colleagues Talking About Abortion

While debating legislation on the House floor Wednesday that includes language related to Title X funding, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said she’s tired of hearing “so many sex-starved males on this floor talk about a woman’s right to choose,” the Hill reported.

Roll Call chronicled the excitement:

A routine House debate nearly exploded Wednesday when California Democrat Norma J. Torres implied her Republican colleagues were “sex-starved males” for opposing abortion.

“Mr. Speaker, it is tiring to hear from so many sex-starved males on this floor talk about a woman’s right to choose,” Torres said as lawmakers debated a rule setting up amendment consideration for a four-bill spending package that includes funding for public health programs.

Torres, one of the newest members of the House Rules Committee, clearly broke House Rules — members cannot personally impugn their colleagues on the floor.

Torres’ remarks were triggered by Rep. Ross Spano (R-Fla.), who blasted the bill for allowing federal funding to be used for abortions under a “family planning” bill:

“For more than 40 years, this country operated under the policy that not one cent of taxpayer money can be used to fund abortion. We are a nation that deeply values religious liberty,” Spano said.

“This rule further protects Americans’ tax dollars being forced to subsidize entities that kill unborn children. Accordingly, I’m fully supportive of Rep. Roby’s amendment that we will debate this afternoon to strike the language that would halt this important rule and the other amendments that will restore pro-life policies to this legislation. I encourage all of my colleagues to support these provisions.”

This Tweet has video of Torres:

NORMA TORRES: "Mr. Speaker, it is tiring to hear from so many sex-starved males on this floor talk about a woman's right to choose.” pic.twitter.com/V2CS1BhK7U

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) June 12, 2019

This isn’t Norma Torres’ first verbal faux pas. I remember one of her verbal gaffes when in 2012, then-Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R) made a sarcastic crack on the floor of the California State Assembly about the Sacramento Bee, and called it a “Communist newspaper.” Shortly after, then-Assemblywoman Norma Torres (D-Chino), insisted Assembly leadership discipline Donnelly for “committing slander.”

“The request by Torres in 2012 was so absurd, and so out of line, that many of her fellow Democrats rolled their eyes,” I wrote. “Several Assembly members, who are also attorneys, shook their heads and said that Donnelly’s comment was not a case of slander.”

Torres’ comment on the floor of the House this week also “elicited an audible response from the House floor, with some people groaning,” the NY Post reported. “Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) got up to ask whether Torres would “like to change her last statement.”

“Mr. Speaker, if it pleases my colleagues on the other side, I will withdraw my statement about sex-starved males on the floor,” she responded.

Rick Moran at PJ Media summed up this event appropriately:

“Torres holds the extremist pro-choice position on the abortion issue and should hardly be telling men — or anyone else — to sit down and shut up. Questioning the legitimacy of the assertion of religious liberty in the argument only makes Torres look and sound shallow and closed minded.”