Matt Gaetz has doubled down on his claim that only unattractive women are concerned about abortion rights.
The Florida lawmaker first made the controversial remarks to more than 5,000 young people at the right-wing Turning Point USA Student Action Summit.
And Mr Gaetz, who is reportedly under federal investigation over allegations he sex trafficked an underage girl, refused to apologise on Monday.
He was asked by a reporter from WEAR-TV, if he believed that women who attended pro-abortion rallies were “ugly and overweight”, to which he replied “yes”.
And he was then asked what he had to say to people who were offended by those comments.
“Be offended,” the congressman said.
“I find these people who go out on these pro-abortion and pro-murder rallies odious and just ugly on the inside and out and I make no apology for it,” he told the station.
At the Turning Point event in Tampa over the weekend, Mr Gaetz shared similar thoughts with the crowd.
“Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions?” Mr Gaetz said.
“Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.”
And he added: “They’re like 5’2, 350 pounds and they’re like ‘give me my abortions or I’ll get up and march and protest’ and I’m thinking: ‘March? You look like you got ankles weaker than the legal reasoning behind Roe vs Wade.’
“A few of them need to get up and march. They need to get up and march for like an hour a day, swing those arms, get the blood pumping, maybe mix in a salad.”
