It was stupid for the WH to mention Rush Limbaugh and “elevate” his status. Good times:
By now, many have heard the stories I wanted to share thanks to the congressional leaders and members of the media who have supported me and millions of women in speaking out.
Because we spoke so loudly, opponents of reproductive health access demonized and smeared me and others on the public airwaves. These smears are obvious attempts to distract from meaningful policy discussions and to silence women’s voices regarding their own health care.
These attempts to silence women and the men who support them have clearly failed. I know this because I have received so many messages of support from across the country — women and men speaking out because they agree that contraception needs to be treated as a basic health care service.
Who are these supporters?
They are women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, who need contraception to prevent cysts from growing on their ovaries, which if unaddressed can lead to infertility and deadly ovarian cancer. They are sexual assault victims, who need contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
They are Catholic women, who see no conflict between their social justice -based faith and family planning. They are new moms, whose doctors fear that another pregnancy too soon could jeopardize the mother’s health and the potential child’s health too. They are mothers and grandmothers who remember all too well what it was like to be called names decades ago, when they were fighting for a job, for health care benefits, for equality.
They are husbands, partners, boyfriends and male friends who know that without access to contraception, the women they care about can face unfair obstacles to participating in public life. And yes, they are young women of all income levels, races, classes and ethnicities who need access to contraception to control their reproduction, pursue their education and career goals and prevent unintended pregnancy. And they will not be silenced.
These women know how expensive birth control pills can be, with or without insurance coverage. For a single mother with kids, a woman making minimum wage, or a student living on loans, a high monthly co-pay could be the difference between buying contraception or one week of groceries.
And imagine the financial burden of unplanned pregnancy and raising a child. For women without insurance coverage or with insurance that doesn’t cover contraception, the costs create a significant financial burden.
Limbaugh must be at home seething with rage that he can’t call her a slut for this op-ed piece.
psycholinguist
uh, …think of something snarky……..
Comrade Mary
Lovely.
Not lovely: the CNN comments. Read the whole article, but bail before you get to the mouth breathing haters.
FlipYrWhig
Wow, that’s well done.
David Koch
The PL is nothing if not consistently wrong.
AA+ Bonds
I suppose it’s not a surprise that Sandra Fluke has a more level head about this than a surprising chunk of Balloon Juice commenters in the previous thread, and I would urge y’all to listen to her
AA+ Bonds
@Comrade Mary:
The precious thing about those is that the majority of “Catholic” commenters on them are well-known right-wing Protestant trolls who magically become Catholic whenever these stories appear, but write things that indicate that they’ve never even stepped inside a Catholic church
I spent an entire hour there clearing weeds when CNN’s braindead religion writers decided two high-level Church employees reflected lay opinion about Obama (a completely poll-free story that made insane claims)
Steve in DC
He should point out the Georgetown actually covers birth control pills for medical issues. They just didn’t cover the specific brand name her friend wanted and gave her generic.
Which isn’t nearly what Fluke claimed (some of her other claims and history makes this thing a bit of a mess as well).
I’d rather everything was covered, but Fluke twisted things a good bit. Instead of pointing out that she wasn’t on the level, Rush screwed up and went after her personally like an idiot. He could have also pointed out that the $85 is a lie, it’s $9-20 for the pills around here.
Rush was stupid, but Fluke is far from an honest every woman here and is a spin master.
AA+ Bonds
@Steve in DC:
Thanks, Mr. Breitbart, I thought you were dead
Insomniac
Very well said. Love the simple clarity of what she’s saying. Reading this once you understand and get what’s she’s saying…what millions of women and the men who support them are saying: “Insurance-covered contraception is about more than preventing unwanted pregnancies.”
Jay S
Rush wasn’t bound in any sense to use her actual words before, why would he worry about them now? He can just pretend she said something entirely different and flail at his own phony arguments.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Which concern troll kept saying that we should stop talking about Rush?
AA+ Bonds
“Lingering questions remain” whether Steve in DC should go lube up Joel Pollak
I understand Pollak likes a thumb under his glans, that’s what Dana Loesch tells me, and let’s face it, Steve’s going to have a hard time measuring up
Let’s give him our support
Mnemosyne
@Steve in DC:
Uh, you do realize that there are multiple formulations of the Pill, right? And that not all of them are available as generics? And that there can be a huge difference in effect between a pill with 1% estrogen and 1.5% estrogen?
Seriously, I don’t think you could be more ignorant about this whole issue if you tried.
handy
@AA+ Bonds:
This one does it better than you.
AA+ Bonds
@Mnemosyne:
Who, Steve in DC? I doubt the Kochs are paying him more than minimum wage so he’s probably not trying as hard as he possibly could
Brachiator
I think she qualifies as an activist now that she has written an op ed piece.
I look for Rush and his fiercest defenders to crawl out from under their rocks and start up a new round of attacks. They never learn.
AA+ Bonds
@handy:
I appreciate the commenter’s effort but engaging with right-wing propagandists makes it seem like they have an argument
They don’t and should be treated as what they’ve chosen to become: human garbage
Steve in DC‘s utter contempt for women shines right through that turd of a post
pseudonymous in nc
CNN comments are no different from any mass-media site’s comments: a complete fucking cesspool.
@Steve in DC:
Without insurance, which is what she specifically talked about? Idiot.
@Mnemosyne:
Idiot Steve In DC seems to think that the wimmins should make do with “Pill”, even while good menfolk get to choose from three kinds of stiffy pill.
Carnacki
@AA+ Bonds: Lot of Baptists hate Catholics except for when they’re useful on some issues. But otherwise, they know Catholics are going straight to hell for not accepting Jesus as their personal savior the way they should have
trollhattan
@Comrade Mary:
Wish I’d have seen your post first. Ugggggggggggh.
Ed-you-kay-shun, how the fuck does it work?
middlewest
Uh, why not? That’s probably the lead to his next show.
kindness
Yea….the comments at CNN are like wading through a cesspool with sandals on.
middlewest
@Steve in DC: Ah, the Internet MD chimes in. Only slightly less knowledgeable than the Internet Lawyer.
Barry
@Mnemosyne: “Seriously, I don’t think you could be more ignorant about this whole issue if you tried.”
The number of people slagging her who even know that BC pills have to be taken every day is in the single digits.
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
Wait, now I remember — Steve in DC is the guy who was insisting the other day that the right to take currently illegal drugs is a “civil liberties” issue, but the right to decide for yourself when and how to have children is a mere “social issue.”
You would think that the right to control one’s own body would be of concern to civil libertarians, but apparently not.
cthulhu
Oh, and you can bet the male birth control pill will be at a substantial price point when it hits the market in the next few years, at least similar to non-generic female birth control pills.
Come to think of it, will conservatives freak out about the male birth control pill or not? They seemed to have largely defended condom use during this current kerfuffle to justify not paying for the pill but this seems at odds with every sperm being sacred. So damn confusing…
Rafer Janders
@Steve in DC:
Ah, the vague and unsubstantiated “other claims and history” designed to sow a seed of doubt. Standard propaganda: make a shadowy-sounding accusation but never provide enough detail so that it can be refuted.
Unfortunately, some of Steve in DC’s other claims and history, and his associations and connections, make it hard to believe a word he writes. He has a history of this sort of thing. There are stories. Some say there’s a lot of unsavory details that he’d prefer to keep unknown.
Zifnab
@cthulhu:
Male birth control is for long haired hippies and urban youths that want to rape our white women.
muddy
@Mnemosyne:
Not fer teh silly wimmenz! When I responded yesterday with a similar thought, I was told that there are levels of importance that must be minded and this was not tops. Silly wimmenz …
Bulworth
@kindness: You mean the “good Christians” and Real Americans?
Brachiator
@cthulhu:
The Catholic Church would, of course, oppose a male pill.
But yeah, I imagine that other conservative males will get their vasa deferentia all tied up in knots over a male pill.
Corner Stone
“Remember when we were told:”
Please tell us who gave this advice.
kay
I hope she’s an “operative”
I don’t know why I can’t have ONE when they have The Bishops and Limbaugh and every other damn thing.
Ideally, she’s a good “operative”, and also “entrenched”.
Julia Grey
I’m happy to hand her my entrenching tool. All liberals should have one in their backpacks.
It’s a long way to Tipperary…
Steve
Reading this op-ed, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that it was stupid for Rush to elevate Ms. Fluke’s status. Of course, it was the GOP that foolishly elevated her status in the first place, when they gave themselves a PR black eye by refusing to let her testify. President Obama remains fortunate as ever in his choice of enemies.
On a separate note, I’m just so impressed by Ms. Fluke’s personal strength and courage in the face of the massive hate campaign she’s endured. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through that. I wonder how many other people, women in particular, have been inspired by her example.
Steve
@kay: Rosa Parks was an “operative” too, and that episode turned out pretty well.
John Cole
@Corner Stone: There were a bunch of people whining about it. Peter Daou stands out.
Egg Berry
@Corner Stone:
wasn’t it Jake Tapper or David Gregory?
TooManyJens
@Steve: I’ve been watching with fascination as the right dutifully makes “activist” a bad word because Sandra Fluke is one. Is “activist” the new “community organizer”?
ABL 2.0
I love that CNN published Fluke’s op-ed while one of its contributors called Fluke a nympho.
awesome.
El Tiburon
This is what Rush had growing out of his a-hole that prevented him from serving in the military. It’s true. Google it.
Or, it also could too be that he is a ginormous pussy. And by ginormous pussy, I don’t mean an oversized sexy lady part, but a big fucking wuss.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
Glibertarian in “conservative pothead” shocker.
Arclite
Well, put. She seems smart. Maybe she’ll turn her 15 minutes into a congressional run, a la Joe the Plumber. I’d vote for her over him in a heartbeat.
AxelFoley
@David Koch:
Truer words hath never been spoken.
Tonal Crow
@Mnemosyne:
Don’t get all confused by the labels. Republican trolls are “civil libertarians” in the same way that slavery is freedom.
Corner Stone
@John Cole: Oh. Peter Daou.
Thank you.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
the thing about limbaugh vis a vis punching down, is that he doesn’t see himself as beneath the white house, or the president because they are illegitimate.
he can’t use it to his advantage.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes
Okay, somebody is going to have to explain to me why today’s polling shows Obama losing to Romney in the general, and women’s support for Obama FALLING. Can somebody explain this to me?
With all this furor as the GOP stampedes back to the 8th Century, you’d think that Obama and the Dems would be in great shape. Yet…they’re fucking LOSING. What the fuck is going on?!