Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Instead of convincing the public that women need mandated birth control coverage, Nancy Pelosi’s unofficial hearing featuring a promiscuous Georgetown law student is causing even more controversy than the mandate.
CNSNews.com is reporting that Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown law student and women’s reproductive rights activist, told a handful of Democratic representatives at a hearing last week that women in her law school are having so much sex they’re going broke. Unfortunately for these students, Georgetown, a Catholic university, does not provide contraceptive coverage.
“Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy,” Fluke said. “Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school. . . . For a lot of students, like me, who are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary,” she said.
The testimony has brought widespread condemnation of the already unpopular mandate with even supporters of the policy questioning the reasoning behind forcing religious institutions to provide insurance for this kind of promiscuous behavior.
Craig Bannister of CNS did the math and says $3,000 over three years amounts to having sex 2.74 times a day, every day, for three straight years.
“Apparently, four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it’s hard to make ends meet if they have to pay for their own contraception,” according to Fluke’s research, Bannister writes.
What made her testimony even more outrageous is the fact that “there are Planned Parenthood clinics in her neighborhood that give condoms away and sell them at a discount, which could help make her sexual zeal more economical,” Bannister reports.
Her other option would be to avail herself of condoms at CVS pharmacy’s website, which are available for $1 each.
The Weekly Standard also pointed out that Fluke and her friends could purchase birth control pills as low as $9 per month at a pharmacy near Georgetown’s campus.
“According to an employee at the pharmacy in Washington, D.C.’s Target store, the pharmacy sells birth control pills-the generic versions of Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Ortho-Cyclen–for $9 per month,” the Standard writes, which is the cost of the pills without insurance. “Nine dollars is less than the price of two beers at a Georgetown bar.”
They conclude: “It strains credulity to believe that a single Georgetown student can’t afford $9 per month for birth control. But this is the justification the mandate’s supporters give for forcing religious institutions to purchase insurance that violates their religious and moral convictions.”
Fluke ended her testimony by expressing her resentment of university officials and others who suggest she should have chosen to attend a different university that would have offered contraception coverage.
“We refuse to pick between a quality education and our health and we resent that, in the 21st Century, anyone thinks it’s acceptable to ask us to make that choice simply because we are women,” Fluke said.
To this, Tina Korbe, writing for Hot Air, replied: “Ms. Fluke, I resent that you think women are incapable of controlling themselves, of sacrificing temporary pleasure for the sake of long-term success. You make us sound like animals, slaves to our instincts and able to be used, but we’re better than that. We’re persons, equal to men in dignity and love.”
Sandra Fluke’s laughable testimony appears to have backfired on feminist lawmakers. Instead of convincing the public about the need for mandatory contraceptive coverage, it revealed just how wrongheaded this policy really is.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
I really think some of these people are from another planet. I really wouldn’t want her to be my lawyer. I think this article does reveal the true face of many women who take birth control. How embarrassing!
When I was growing up in the 1960s, a common saying amongst the older crowd, and one I agree with, is: “A simple form of contraception is to take one aspirin, and hold it between your knees”.
It’s a wonder they can find the time to study.
In my day, that testimony would have been considered shameful. To me, it still is.
“Craig Bannister of CNS did the math and says $3,000 over three years amounts to having sex 2.74 times a day, every day, for three straight years.”
Obviously, Craig is confusing hormonal birth control with Viagra. He doesn’t realize that hormonal therapy isn’t taken everytime one has sex. It can be delivered daily through the pill, or for 30 days with a nuvaring, or the depo shot. It is not only taken for pregnancy prevention. It is used for heavy periods that result in anemia, polycystic ovary disease, and other illnesses that are treated and controlled with hormones. Both Rush and this CNS writer are clueless, and demeaning to all women – not just those that use hormonal birth control.
By the way, how much sex someone has, would be their business not ours. That would be a separate issue from having your medications covered by insurance. Viagra doesn’t do anything but stiffen a penis, yet it is covered by Religious organizations. Possibly he is confusing the Pill with Viagra, thinking she has to take one everytime she has sex, since he has to in order to get his limp underestimation of manhood erect.
I agree with Sandra.
Her argument should also include male contraceptives.
Medical insurance should cover men, for condoms, spermicidal gel, and child support. Not to mention the anti-anxeity drugs that come with having to pay for child support. Which is money taken away from men for their own health insurance.
CHEERS! Sandra! I hope you win your arguement. It would be wonderful for men and women across the nation to benefit, from not having to be responsible for unplanned pregnancies.
Perhaps, you can even get abortion federally funded? Then no one is going to be responsible for unplanned pregnancies, and we can all sleep safer, knowing that we ended a life, because it was inconvenient.
Sincerely,
Michael (someone who takes responsibility for their actions)
Self-control is FREE, accessible and does not require an insurance premium. Furthermore, it adds the bonus of saving you the trouble of getting an STD, or AIDS and.. actually causes men to respect you for who you are instead of lusting over who you are in bed.
This was a set-up to shame Georgetown b/c it was a Catholic University. And 40% means 40 out of every 100 students needs birth control for “health care”. How is birth control keeping you healthy? Some forms help with acne but why would you want to take a group one carcinogen (yep it is!) just for that at your age when acne is nearly gone! Women who are getting law degrees shouldn’t have time for that much sex!
As I said in previous forums, the cost really covers Plan B (the morning after pill) at $49/need at CVS. It also covers the cost of an abortion since women who go to such an upscale university usually are very intelligent and prochoice and see nothing wrong with using abortion for birth control…the price to kill that baby is anywhere from $360 to over a $1000 depending on the stage of gestation and the type of abortion.
Miss Fluke followed Nancy Pelosi’s script with the hope of getting famous on Capitol Hill for her testimony. Well, even us non-Catholics, know that Ms. Pelosi is not a very serious Catholic or she would not be in cohoots with Obama! Ms. Fluke, you have been used by a Progressive Congresswoman and the liberal media. You’ve had your 5 minutes of fame..and like Norma McCorvey of Roe v. Wade, you have been used and once they realize this turned out to be a fiasco instead of a “win”, they will dump you when you no longer serve their cause. Next time, as a future lawyer, check out your source’s credibility before agreeing to “testify” before Congress.
“Fluke ended her testimony by expressing her resentment of university officials and others who suggest she should have chosen to attend a different university that would have offered contraception coverage……“We refuse to pick between a quality education and our health ……” Fluke said.”
Comment:
Ms. Fluke, you have indeed chosen a quality education. The university, in its wisdom and under its duty as a Catholic educator, is protecting its female students from using birth control pills which, by the way, are listed as a Class One carcinogen by the World Health Organization. You, Ms. Fluke, would be wise to listen to them — and to your Creator.