COLUMBIA, S.C. - A lawmaker's comments questioning why abused women would return to men who batter them brought protests from South Carolina lawmakers, television viewers and victim advocates.

"I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them," Altman said Tuesday in the interview on WIS-TV. "I've asked women that and they all tell me the same answer, 'John Graham, you don't understand.' And I say you're right, I don't understand."

The interview with Altman came after the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Tuesday making cockfighting a felony but tabled one making second-offense criminal domestic violence a felony.

"The woman (who is abused) ought to not be around the man," Altman said in the interview. "I mean, you women want it one way and not another," he told the female reporter.

The committee office, which receives about a dozen complaints a day, on Wednesday received more than 250, an aide said

House leaders said they had talked about reintroducing a bill before the tidal wave of publicity following the television report. House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said the previous bill was flawed and he and House staffers would clean up the language and introduce a new version, perhaps as early as next week.

"Criminal domestic violence is a critical issue and is something that should not be tolerated," Wilkins said.

Under the state's current domestic violence law, first and second offenses are misdemeanors handled in magistrate municipal courts and carry sentences of 30 days in jail or a fine, Beaufort County prosecutor Duffy Stone said.

A third offense moves into Circuit Court, but is still a misdemeanor that carries up to three years in prison, Stone said.

South Carolina law has a separate category of domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature when an assault is committed with a deadly weapon, results in serious injury or could cause a person to fear death or serious bodily injury. Those cases are felonies no matter what and carry a maximum of 10 years.

"In both levels those are very serious offenses," Stone said. "They're offenses prosecutors take very seriously."

A tape of Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting obtained by The (Columbia) State newspaper has Altman asking why the bill's title "Protect Our Women in Every Relationship (POWER)" just mentioned protecting women.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, suggested calling the bill the "Protecting Our People in Every Relationship Act", or "POPER," the newspaper reported.

A voice on the tape is heard pronouncing it "Pop her." Then another says "Pop her again" followed by laughter.

"And they wonder why we rank in the bottom on women in office and we lead in women getting killed by men," Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, who sponsored the bill, said later.

Harrison said critics are "overreacting" and the comments weren't to take away from the seriousness of the problem. "If you take it that way, you're overly sensitive," he said.

Laura Hudson of the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network called Altman's comments "very troubling." She said victims many times return to abusers because they have no other place to go.

"We believe it is outrageous that a member of the Judiciary Committee would want to blame a woman who is battered," said House Minority Leader Harry Ott, D-St. Matthews.

Altman said later there were problems with the bill and the outcry was "manufactured" by groups that have always opposed him. "I've gotten some very supportive calls from people that understand the problems with the bill," he said.

But none of those people were among the 150 women marching on the Statehouse on Thursday to protest Altman's comments, some carrying signs that said "We Never Thought We'd Rather Be Chickens."

"It's shocking that fighting with chickens gets five years in prison, but beating your wife almost to the point of death just gets 30 days," said 22-year-old Virginia Spell. "It's absolutely insulting. I couldn't speak I was so angry."