Paul Ryan may be best known for his economic policies, but as Rachel Maddow reported on Monday, he's also staked out a far-right position reproductive health.

In fact, Ryan has  proposed national bills to effectively ban abortion—even in cases where the mother's life is at risk—and many forms of hormonal birth control as well as in vitro fertilization. The Republican vice presidential candidate also supports a federal version of the personhood amendment that failed in Mississippi last fall, which would have declared that life begins at fertilization.

Maddow speculated that perhaps Romney had picked Ryan as his running mate instead of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell because McDonnell "blew it" when he signed a mandatory ultrasound bill into law earlier this year. The controversial law, which went into effect July 1, requires women to have transvaginal ultrasounds before they can have an abortion. Romney may have thought Ryan was a "budget wonk guy with none of that baggage," said Maddow, but Ryan has supported a federal version of the same bill.

"Welcome 'Congressman Ultrasound' to the Republican ticket," she said.

National Organization of Women President Terry O'Neill appeared on The Ed Schultz Show earlier Monday and called Ryan "fiercely and harshly anti-female."