The vaginal probe — you know, that medical instrument some Republican lawmakers want to be shoved up your vagina before you get an abortion — is the star of Democrat Deb Butler’s latest attack ad on her North Carolina state Senate race opponent.

Republican Thom Goolsby, the incumbent, voted in 2011 to support legislation that would, among other things, require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound in order to have the procedure. The bill itself does not require the medically invasive transvaginal probe, but the device is usually necessary to perform an ultrasound in the early stages of pregnancy. As Butler puts it, the wand would be Goolsby’s “contribution to women’s health.”

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.