One Idaho lawmaker became the laughing stock of the Internet on Monday after asking if women can swallow a camera for closer inspection during a gynecological exam.
State Representative Vito Barbieri made the comment during a House State Affairs Committee hearing on legislation banning doctors from prescribing abortion medication while telecommunicating with patients, known as telemedicine, the Associated Press reported.
A physician who opposes the bill, Dr. Julie Madsen, testified that colonoscopy patients swallow a small camera to help doctors inspect their colon.
"Can this same procedure then be done in a pregnancy?" Barbieri, who is a board member at a crisis pregnancy center in Idaho, asked according to the AP. "Swallowing a camera and helping the doctor determine what the situation is?"
Madsen replied that would be physically impossible since swallowed pills do not end up in the vagina.
"Fascinating. That makes sense," Barbieri, a Republican, said as the floor erupted with laughter.
Later Monday, after the committee approved the bill, Barbieri said his question was merely rhetorical, KTVB reported. He told the station he was trying to show you can't compare conducting a colonoscopy to something like a chemically-induced abortion.
"So all I was doing was asking a rhetorical question, and I probably should have had a little bit more sarcastic or rhetorical tone to my inflection, but I was merely trying to illicit the response that I got, which is they're not comparable, obviously," Barbieri told KTVB.
The bill has now moved to the Republican-controlled House floor where it will receive a full vote, the AP reported. If passed, doctors would be prohibited from handing out abortion-inducing medications via telemedicine and would be required to make "all reasonable efforts" to secure a follow-up visit.
When asked how he felt about his now-viral remarks, Berbieri said he doesn't mind.
"I think the Internet is wonderful," Barbieri said. "It can take things like that out of context and run with it."
