It has nothing to do with rigorous safety standards. It was a blanket ban without regard to crib performance, the cribs were conclusively proven to be safer than cars, and the ban has resulted in shorter women who cannot use fixed-side cribs switching to other baby sleeping arrangements that are less safe.
This is what the US federal government does to almost everything it touches. It operates at too large a scale to make sensible decisions. It kills babies "for the children", it imprisons drug users to keep them from being trapped in an unpleasant situation, it makes education loans non-bankruptable to ensure a good life for students, and so forth.
It would do exactly the same to medicine if given total, absolute control.
This seems like the slippery slope fallacy. You'll have to excuse me if I find your argument particularly unconvicing! You are saying that those who have placed a blanket ban on cribs will make terrible decisions on health care, yet you haven't proven that this one thing will lead to the other.
The crib ban is a health policy decision. So is the entire TSA, the entire war on drugs, and so forth. The U.S. federal government rarely gets health issues right, and often gets them spectacularly wrong.
This is what the US federal government does to almost everything it touches. It operates at too large a scale to make sensible decisions. It kills babies "for the children", it imprisons drug users to keep them from being trapped in an unpleasant situation, it makes education loans non-bankruptable to ensure a good life for students, and so forth.
It would do exactly the same to medicine if given total, absolute control.