Christ, what an asshole. Idaho Republican Rep. Vito Barbieri. Courtesy Idaho State Legislature website.
A complete idiot who managed to get elected to The Idaho House of Representatives received a female reproductive anatomy lesson today.
Republican state Rep. Vito Barbieri asked if it were possible for a woman to swallow a small camera so that doctors could conduct a gynecological exam remotely, using telemedicine, before performing an abortion.
He asked this utterly stupid question Monday, revealing his total ignorance of basic grade school human biology, while the House State Affairs Committee listened to some three hours of testimony on a bill that would prohibit doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing meds using telemedicine.
The lawmaker later said that the question was rhetorical, and he was just trying to make a point. In other words, he was trolling.
I don’t buy it. Trolling takes more intelligence than this knuckledragger possesses.
From the Associated Press report:
Dr. Julie Madsen, a physician who said she has provided various telemedicine services in Idaho, was testifying in opposition to the bill. She said some colonoscopy patients may swallow a small device to give doctors a closer look at parts of their colon.
“Can this same procedure then be done in a pregnancy? Swallowing a camera and helping the doctor determine what the situation is?” Barbieri asked.
Madsen replied that would be impossible because swallowed pills do not end up in the vagina.
“Fascinating. That makes sense,” Barbieri said, amid the crowd’s laughter.
The committee approved the bill (banning doctors from remotely prescribing abortion-inducing medication) 13-4 on a party-line vote.
The bill now goes to the House floor for a full vote.
Barbieri sits on the board of a crisis pregnancy center in northern Idaho, and voted in favor of the legislation, because he is an ignorant dipshit. We should just put him in charge of All Of The Things.
Perhaps you would like to make a donation to Planned Parenthood, to fight this sort of thing and help prevent women from dying because they can’t access safe and legal abortions.
[HT: Susie Bright]