Rush Limbaugh made a mistake in his hyperbolic criticism of Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke; he overplayed his hand.
By calling Fluke a “slut” and making a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Fluke post videos of her sex life on the internet, Limbaugh’s crass comments made Fluke a victim.
Limbaugh was forced to apologize. And he should have. His comments were churlish and over the line. Unfortunately, Rush’s excess has trumped legitimate debate over Fluke’s argument.
Fluke, who is the past president of the Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice, testified before Congressional Democrats about she believes is the need for the student health plan at the Jesuit school to pay for birth control.
“One (student) told us of how embarrassed and powerless she felt when she was standing at the pharmacy counter, learning for the first time that contraception wasn’t covered, and had to walk away because she couldn’t afford it,” Fluke testified.
True, Limbaugh more than doubled down, but Fluke could legitimately be questioned on whether birth control is an expected entitlement at a Jesuit law school.
The reason Fluke testified was the vote last week on Senator Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) amendment on the Obama administration’s contraception mandate. The amendment would have allowed religious institutions to opt out of the Obama health care law requiring that they provide contraceptive care.
The Catholic Church wants an exemption because its opposes contraception and sterilization, which employer insurance will have to provide under the new health care law.
The Blunt amendment failed to get enough votes, but it had the support of West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin.
“While I would have preferred that both sides would have come together around a solution like we had in West Virginia, I am voting in favor of this measure to protect the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America,” Manchin said.
West Virginia struck a compromise in 2005 with the Prescription Fairness Act. That law required that basic health care plans include contraception, but it provided exemptions for “contraceptive drugs and devices that are contrary to the religious employer’s religious tenets.”
West Virginia passed that bill without anybody being called a slut and without any overly dramatic testimony about someone being denied their entitled birth control. Who knew at the time that West Virginia would be an example of reasonableness?