A piece by Tara Culp-Ressler at ThinkProgress notes that the risk of dying from a colonoscopy is about forty times greater than the risk of dying from an abortion, and yet colonscopies are not subject to nearly as many regulatory restrictions—enacted, by the way, by Republicans who hold government regulations in utter disdain on any other issue—as abortion (h/t Lynn).

I suspect that most people who support the intensive regulatory regime currently governing abortion services in states like Texas, if asked about the disparity in regulatory treatment of abortion and colonoscopies despite a reverse disparity in risk factors, would respond with blank stares, because this was never about patient safety or risk.

I also suspect that if they did try to answer the question, they might say something about how colonoscopies, unlike abortion, have nothing to do with being a slutty slutterson. To which I say they aren’t using their imagination.

Yeah, I went there.