U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts apologized Thursday after an off-color joke drew the ire of some on Capitol Hill.

When reporter Alice Ollstein asked Roberts about possible changes to essential health benefits in the American Health Care Act — benefits that health insurance plans are required to cover under current law — Roberts joked about women’s health.

"I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms," he told Ollstein, of Talking Points Memo.

Ollstein’s tweet about the encounter drew much attention and criticism aimed at Kansas’ senior senator, a Republican. In a tweet of his own about an hour later, Roberts apologized.

"I deeply regret my comments on a very important topic," he wrote. "Mammograms are essential to women’s health & I never intended to indicate otherwise."

Roberts has a reputation in the Capitol for dry, deadpan humor that raises eyebrows.

His suggestion Jan. 19 that a fellow senator take a Valium to relax derailed a confirmation hearing. In 2011, he told President Barack Obama to do the same, again drawing attention from critics.

After President Ronald Reagan declined to sign a bill to alleviate a credit crisis in 1985, Roberts said, "I would simply tell the president that if he’s going back to California, he better not fly too low over Kansas or he’s going to get a pitchfork in Air Force One."