Yesterday, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) issued a video statement after Democrats demanded an apology for his outburst on the House floor of “it’s a baby-killer!” when Bart Stupak announced his support for ObamaCare. Initially, the media reported that Neugebauer called Stupak a baby-killer, but Neugebauer said that he was referring to the bill. In the video, Neugebauer didn’t apologize for his passionate defense of life, but promised to channel it perhaps differently as he pursues remedies to the damage ObamaCare will do.

Is Neugebauer retreating? In an exclusive statement to Hot Air, he is punching back at his critics and chastising them for their selective outrage:

I am Randy Neugebauer, the Congressman who said the Democrat’s health care bill is a baby-killer. Hot Air has graciously allowed me to respond to the vicious attacks that have been launched against me for defending the lives of the unborn.

You know, the recent “Louisiana Purchase” and “Cornhusker Kickbacks” in the health care bill were backroom deals about money. Those are offensive enough, but what happened late Sunday was far worse. It is one thing to make backroom deals for money, but on Sunday, Democrats traded the lives of unborn children so they could make a deal on their legislation. I was outraged that this bill would be a baby killer. Democrats are outraged that I said that out loud.

Well, here is something else I will say out loud: This baby-killer of a bill must be repealed.

That doesn’t sound like Neugebauer feels the need to apologize at all — and as Jim Geraghty reports, plenty of people feel the same way:

The Democrats seem to think that a complicated, bureaucratic government micromanagement of one-sixth of the economy on a party-line vote is small potatoes compared to Rep. Randy Neugebauer calling the bill “a baby-killer.”

If the Democrats pledge electoral consequences, I suspect this will be about as successful as their effort to mobilize against Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina.

Neugebauer represents a district McCain carried 72 percent to 27 percent, and has so far out-raised his Democratic opponent, Andy Wilson, $649,409 to $6,871. (Of Wilson’s total, $370 is from the candidate himself.)

Sounds like a classic briar-patch strategy. Reports already have Neugebauer’s fundraising getting a significant boost, much like Joe Wilson’s less-appropriate outburst last September. Here’s the video statement one more time, too:

I’m never going to quit speaking on behalf of the unborn, and I’m never going to quit speaking on behalf of the people of Texas and the people of the United States of America who find this policy unacceptable . . . I’m going to continue to speak with the same passion I had last night, maybe a little bit different forum, but still with the same intensity.