Rush Limbaugh Calls Law Student ‘Slut’ for Speaking Up About Women’s Health [UPDATED]
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Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke testifies during a hearing sponsored by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” this week in response to her recent testimony during a Democratic-held hearing on women’s reproductive health and President Obama’s religious “accommodation” policy.
Since Fluke’s testimony last Thursday, right-wing media have deployed slut-shaming strategies in an attempt to discredit her qualifications. Fluke is the chapter leader and former president of Georgetown’s Law Students for Reproductive Justice.
Craig Bannister of conservative CNSnews.com not only titled his article with Onion-like zeal, as Washington Monthly’s Ed Kilgore points out, he also attempted to paint Fluke as a “sex-crazed” college student by incorrectly computing that the $3,000 Fluke said it costs some women to pay for contraceptives during law school would mean that she’s having sex nearly three times daily.
The problem with Bannister’s sex math? He used the price of $1 condoms listed on drugstore CVS’ website instead of the much pricier cost of oral contraceptives like birth control pills, which are at the center of the religious “accommodation” and reproductive health debate, and was what Fluke was most likely referencing.
Fluke was invited by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to testify in response to Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) refusal to let her speak during a separate hearing held by the House Oversight Committee on Obama’s new rule on contraceptive coverage for employees at religiously affiliated universities, hospitals, and non-profits. At that hearing, Issa said Fluke did not “have the appropriate credentials” to testify because she is a “college student.”
At the Pelosi-sponsored hearing, Fluke said being an American woman made her more that qualified to speak on issues that directly affect women’s reproductive health. The first panel during Issa’s the oversight committee’s hearing was comprised entirely of men.
“Just as we students have faced financial, emotional, and medical burdens as a result,” Fluke said during her testimony, “employees at religiously affiliated hospitals and universities across the country have suffered similar burdens.”
UPDATE: Limbaugh continued his tirade against Fluke today by offering her, and all the female students at Georgetown University, an “accommodation” of his own. Instead of contraception, Limbaugh said he would buy “as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want." The outdated quip is likely a knock-off from Foster Friess, a prominent conservative donor.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) came to Fluke’s defense on Thursday. “I am just aghast,” she told The Huffington Post about attacks on Fluke. “Women are going to be afraid to speak because they're going to be called terrible words. It's an attempt to silence people that are speaking out for women.”
Naima Ramos-Chapman is an associate editor at Campus Progress.
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