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Politicians who try to be funny often struggle. Politicians who try to be funny about state-mandated, medically-unnecessary, trans-vaginal ultrasounds invariably fail.
Just ask Sean Duffy, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, who made some curious comments on the subject last week.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) declined to take a position last week during a town hall meeting on whether transvaginal ultrasounds should be mandatory for women seeking abortions, saying he has never heard of the practice and couldn't weigh in on it because "I haven't had one." [...]
Duffy has described himself as "100 percent prolife without exceptions" (though he also said "To qualify, I believe that if we have the life of a mother as an issue, the mother's life takes priority, but we must make every effort to save the life of the child.") Asked about one of the main goals for the pro-life movement, however, Duffy said he had not heard of transvaginal ultrasounds at all.
The Republican lawmaker's defense, apparently, is complete ignorance. He doesn't know what a trans-vaginal ultrasound is -- though it seems to me the name is rather descriptive and self-explanatory -- and he has no idea that his fellow Republicans have pushed proposals at the state level, including Wisconsin, that would require medically-unnecessary, trans-vaginal ultrasounds by state mandate.
But since Duffy hasn't kept on the news, and thinks it's amusing that he hasn't been subjected to a trans-vaginal ultrasound of his own, he's comfortable dodging the question.
Here's the follow-up inquiry: if folks were able to educate Duffy on the policy, and he could no longer claim ignorance, would he support or oppose the policy?
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if folks were able to educate Duffy on the policy,
Yeah, I got your education right here...
Isn't this Moron the Congressman from MTV???
Isn't it interesting how conservatives view Constitutional rights?
Women's right to choose is based on a Supreme Court decision ruling that access to abortion services are a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Private, non-militia ownership of firearms is a right based on a Supreme Court decision that membership in a militia was not a necessary requirement for owning guns.
Conservatives wrap themselves in the Constitution and Bill of Rights as they loudly proclaim that their "right to bear arms shall not be abridged" while they fashion the most despicable and indefensible roadblocks to a woman's right to choose.
This certainly proves, or at least strongly implies, that Constitutional rights are to conservatives important only to the extent that they feel the rights are important to them. Progressives are much more likely to fight for the rights of other people.
What is the message we can take away from the actions of conservatives? Is it that conservatives are selfish?
Maybe they should sit an ultrasound probe in his ear to see if he has a brain.
then they wouldn't be looking in his ear
I had a completely different body orifice in mind for the good Senator from Wisconsin.
Sorry Kevin, you'd only find out that his head is obstructing the probing of that orifice..
So, if his head is up his butt, sticking it in his ear is still an option. Full circle.
The probe would just come out the other side...nothin' in between the ears.
Duffy couldn't comment on a transvaginal ultrasound because he never had one. When I read that I nearly spewed out my coke! Does he know what transvaginal even means? Does he know what a vagina is?
He doesn't remember coming out of one.
Duffy has been otherwise occupied with another 'medical procedure'- a cranial colonoscopy. "He was heard to remark, "Hey, it's dark up here!"
The idiot probably doesn't even know what a vagina is!
He knows it's between the legs but he hasn't actually seen one considering he has sex with the lights off.
The man has five or six kids. That he doesn't know what an ultrasound is suggests that he took absolutely no interest whatsoever in his wife's pregnancies since an ultrasound would have been the first thing that was done when she went in for her first checkup. We have another Joe Walsh in the making.
This is also the guy who said that he couldn't afford to live on a salary of over $100,000 as a representative.
Vajayjays seem to baffle most Republican men...
I keep thinking this was something "The Onion" put out.
If only...
And, btw, I am in favor of proposing mandatory anal probes (I guess would be offically known as "Trans-anal" probe) for prostate checks. Why should women be the only ones to "enjoy" having something unnecessary jammed into their nether regions?
That's intrusive and medically unnecessary.
How about we just mandate them as a condition for holding political office?
Gentlemen: You don't have to look...just turn your face away...
If people like Duffy were able TO BE educated...we wouldn't have people like Duffy.
"I haven't had one."
Maybe it's time we started requiring "proctology exams" for men, after all experience does teach some things.
The fact that he's evading answers with poor attempts at sarcastic humor, on an issue he more than likely knows everything his party has done, suggested or even brain stormed about. Makes the likely hood of him needing anything trans-vaginal, more of a possibility. He is making himself out to be one big ole pussy
catafter all.This Pro-Life crowd just doesn't think. They yell, and wave bibles around, judge, condemn and discriminate.
But they don't think.
This is what happens when you elect someone from The Real World to be your congressman. Just saying...
Exactly! And you marry someone who was on the Real World and dated Puck - real class acts.
i was just getting ready to say the same thing. i remember i used to like him because he was one of the level headed guys before they started recruiting only drunken douche bags for the show. clearly, my teenage self couldn't detect the depths of his epic anti-woman doucheness.
You know that there are a lot of intelligent, progressive people in my state. Unfortunately, morons like Duffy, Glenn Grothman, and Scott Walker shout their ignorance more loudly and get the attention. Life in Fitzwalkerstan goes on......
You had your chance to get rid of walker. Oh well.
My experience of Wisconsin is once you're outside of the cities, it's Alabama with snow.
So, by his own logic, since he has never been pregnant, he shouldn't "weigh in on" pregnancy or abortion.
I think a 72 hour waiting period and TWO prostate exams should be required BY LAW before any man can receive a prescription for Viagra/Cialis/genericbonerpill.
Its shameful to admit being from WI with the likes of Duffy and Ron Johnson on the national level and Scott Walker on the State.
I hear you, I'm from Indiana and we have Pence
Being from Pennsylvania I feel your pain. I constantly feel the need to apologize for Mr. Sanctormonious.
While I agree about Mr. Frothy, he isn't the only dork out of PA. Corbett is even worse because he has the power to damage the state, and he used it. Then there is Toomey and a whole bunch of twits in Harrisburg. Frothy is just a side show now that he is out of office.
I like the idea some women law makers came up with to qualify for Viagar. Make men have internal ultra sounds to check for prostate issues. As a matter of fact..... include that in their "Low T" treatments. I also think there should be some internal probing for the over sized testicles some of these male law makers appear to have!
Or have them wait 48 hours and have a mental evaluation to make sure that they weren't "coerced" into wanting it by a partner, or if they are aware of the the complications that can accompany it, including the untrue statement that their dicks might get cancer if they take that medication.
well he has never had a douche either, but he certainly is one!
The first woman forced to do this should sue the state for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Where I come from somebody inserts something into my vajayjay against my wishes that has no medical reason is rape. The states are forcing doctors to rape women. Why isn't that bought up.
"Education" implies willingness to learn. Conservative extremists already know everything. Reminds me that terrorism is certainty, not ideology.
We need to stop talking about this as "medically unnecessary ultrasounds." These are a violation of our 4th amendment rights. Even as a male, it violates my rights too. If one person's privacy rights can be completely disregarded than someone else's can too.
But it's worse than that. Since most pregnancies are aborted in the first trimester, a vaginal probe must be used. Do you know what it's called when a woman is forced to have something inserted into her vagina against her will? That is called RAPE.
The GOP are not mandating medically unnecessary ultrasounds. They are forcing women to be raped by doctors in order to practice their inalienable right to have an abortion.
Unfortunately, as deeply, deeply wrong as this is, it isn't rape, it's extortion. Or maybe extortion to rape.
The procedure is consensual - they are making a medically unnecessary procedure a requirement for getting an abortion. Since they can't outlaw the abortion, the are deliberately putting consent for a humiliating, painful, and unnecessary procedure in the way.
If you don't want the ultrasound, you don't have to have it. It just means you are "choosing" to waive your constitutional right to the abortion.
This is in a lot of ways no different from saying that, sure, black people can go to that school, they just have to walk barefoot across broken glass to get in.
It's putting consent to an impermissible barrier a requirement for accessing your constitutional rights. It's certainly sexual harassment on a staggering scale.
It's as bad as rape. The experience of undergoing it will be extremely similar to rape. Morally, it's a kind of rape. I don't think you can call it that in a legal sense. And that, in itself, is a part of what's wrong with all this.
So if a rapist say's "you will do everything I ask or I will kill you", when the victim agrees, that's consensual and not considered rape?
Didn’t “date rape” decide the issue of forced consent as still being rape?
Correction; I'm an Ultrasonographer and can confirm that is NOT necessary in most cases to perform a pregnancy ultrasound transvaginally in the first trimester. If an ultrasound is needed it can be done through the abdomen.
Duffy:
What does an unnecessary procedure have to do with saving the life of a mother or a child?!?
The Air must be pretty thin up in that part of the State, If you go go His website and just read about his View's and Knowledge on the Health Subject, My only impression is DUH, Who are you trying to kid? http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-co-sponsors-bill-defund-planned-parenthood http://duffy.house.gov/press-release/duffy-statement-no-taxpayer-funding-abortion-act
Maybe they should shove the probe up Sean Duffy's ass so he could say he's had one.
How about shoving it up his urethra? He'll remember it longer, like every time he has to urinate for the rest of his life.
I'd recommend Harbor Freight's item #41053 for the Congressman's rectal exam. I just fear it might fit.