The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has come to aid of Missouri Representative Vicky Hartzler, who has been criticized for likening gay marriage to polygamy and incest.

Hartzler and Florida Rep. Allen West warned members of Phyllis Schlafly's socially conservative Eagle Forum against the institution.

“If you just care about somebody, have a committed relationship, why not allow one man and two women or three women to marry. There are a lot of people in this country that support polygamy. Why not? They're committed to each other, why should you care? Why not allow a group marriage? There are people out there who want that. … Why not allow an uncle to marry his niece? Why not allow a 50-year-old man to marry a 12-year-old girl, that they love each other and are committed,” Hartzler said last week.

“If you don't set parameters, you don't have any parameters at all, a license means nothing. A marriage means nothing.”

“It's not a right in a constitution part that goes either. It's not a right of a three-year-old to drive a car.” (The video, provided by Right Wing Watch, is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

In an interview with the website PoliticMO.com, Hartzler defended her remarks, saying they had been taken out of context.

“I was saying that if you change the standard in the country to having marriage be, which is what they want, that just anybody that has a loving and committed relationship, then you set yourself on a slippery slope legally in courts to having other people come forward with similar arguments that would be objectionable to almost everyone,” she told the website. “So, that's another reason why it makes sense to just keep the traditional definition of a man and a woman and that it’s my main point there is that it’s wise public policy.”

“So, obviously those comments are just being misconstrued by those,” she added.

NOM, the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, posted the video on their blog under the headline Video: Rep. Vicky Hartzler Defends Marriage, suggesting the group agrees with such comparisons.