Lie Back and Think of Erie

[Content Note: Rape culture; transvaginal ultrasound legislation.]

Male reporter (off-screen): I apologize if you've already said publicly—where do you stand on that ultrasound bill that seemed to stir things up in the House?

Governor Tom Corbett: Well, I mean, we made a statement during the campaign...I wouldn't change it, um, as long as it's not obtrusive, um, but we're still waiting to see.

Reporter: Is making them watch...does that go too far in your mind?

Corbett: I'm not making anybody watch [clears throat], okay? 'Cause you just have to close your eyes. Uh, but as long as it's on the exterior [gestures at stomach] and not interior, okay?

Via Amanda at Think Progress, the above video, of an exchange between a reporter and Republican Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett about Pennsylvania's proposed (but currently shelved) transvaginal ultrasound bill, illuminates just how absurd the reproductive rights debate in this country has become.

Here are two dudes talking about reproductive rights, and the elected official clearly has no idea what the parameters of the bill actually are. As Amanda notes: "While the Pennsylvania legislation has been amended to remove references to invasive transvaginal ultrasounds, the language suggests a transvaginal ultrasound could still be required if the embryo is too small."

And not only is the governor clueless about his party's own heinous legislation, he can't even talk about female (and occasionally not-female) body parts in an adult fashion, making crude gestures to his stomach while referring uncomfortably to "the exterior" and "the interior."

Which is to say nothing of his incredible suggestion that women "close their eyes" during a mandated ultrasound, revolting enough when it's an unsolicited non-penetrative ultrasound, but catapulting into the realm of the truly vile when made in regard to what can amount to rape—of both patient and practitioner.

What of the practitioners who are obliged by law to vaginally penetrate a patient coerced by hir government to "consent" to the procedure in cases where it is not medically necessary, Governor Corbett? Should they just close their eyes, too?

[H/T to @scATX.]