State Rep. Larry Liston (R-Colorado Springs) has apologized to state Rep. Stella Garza Hicks (R-Colorado Springs) for calling unwed teenage parents "sluts" during a GOP legislative caucus meeting on Wednesday, the Denver Post is reporting.

"In my parents' day and age, (unmarried teen parents) were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are. There was at least a sense of shame," Liston said at the caucus during a discussion of Colorado's high teen pregnancy rate.

"There's no sense of shame today," he said. "Society condones it ... I think it's wrong. They're sluts. And I don't mean just the women. I mean the men, too."

Hicks earlier told the Colorado Springs Gazette that she was "disturbed" and "offended" by the comment.

"We're fine," he told the Post.

Liston told the Rocky Mountain News that, “Maybe I could have used a different word.

"But I was frustrated," Liston told the Rocky. "And that was that word that came to my mind, because in the old days, you know, it was frowned upon.”