An activist, Sandra Fluke, testified before a hearing set up by Nancy Pelosi in regards to the HHS mandate which would force religious institutes to provide access to insurance carriers that provided coverage of contraceptives and sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.Pelosi's goal for the hearing was to distract from Obama's direct attack against religious freedom with his HHS abortion mandate.
Instead of Fluke's testimony receiving the attention she wanted, Fluke herself garnered the attention as her "message" drowned in attention to one specific portion of the testimony where Fluke stated "Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school. For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary."
Sandra Fluke- The Blaze documents Flukes previous activism and statements before her testimony:
Though there aren’t links in the original post to the content mentioned, a little digging shows that it’s all true. Fluke has described herself as a third year law student at Georgetown University, and indeed, that is what she is. However, contrary to the narrative of innocent victimhood that portrays Fluke as a wide-eyed 23-year-old girl caught without contraception on a college campus full of predatory men, Fluke herself is really a 30-year-old women‘s rights activist who not only didn’t get caught without contraception at Georgetown, but specifically knew the university didn’t cover it and chose to attend for precisely that reason.
First, there‘s the matter of Fluke’s age. In a segment on Fluke’s battle with Rush Limbaugh, MSNBC reporter Anne Williams called Fluke “the 23-year-old Georgetown law student, prohibited from testifying.” Yet Fluke’s own Linkedin profile reveals a more mature woman:In fact, according to that profile, she graduated from college in 2003. Barring Fluke being a child prodigy who somehow graduated college at the age of 15, this would make her at least 30 years old:
It‘s worth noting the massive number of women’s issues groups Fluke was involved in, even while in college.Now, to be fair, Fluke’s age could have been misreported by the media. Most 3rd year law students are at least 25, and they could have confused her for being an undergraduate senior rather than a 3rd year law student.
The idea that Fluke is herself an unwitting victim of Georgetown’s policy on contraceptives is another matter entirely. In several interviews, especially following Rush Limbaugh’s attack, Fluke has implicitly included herself in the group of women who allegedly unwittingly suffer as a result of Georgetown’s policies. This is a key point for the Democrats supporting her, for if Fluke did happen to read Georgetown’s insurance policy before coming and decide to come anyway, that would, at best, undermine her spokeswoman status.
But what if she not only decided to attend the university anyway, but decided to attend specifically so she could fight this battle? Consider this passage from an early Washington Post story done on Fluke before she was permitted to testify:
Fluke came to Georgetown University interested in contraceptive coverage: She researched the Jesuit college’s health plans for students before enrolling, and found that birth control was not included. “I decided I was absolutely not willing to compromise the quality of my education in exchange for my health care,” says Fluke, who has spent the past three years lobbying the administration to change its policy on the issue. The issue got the university president’s office last spring, where Georgetown declined to change its policy.
Fluke says she would have used the hearing to talk about the students at Georgetown that don’t have birth control covered, and what that’s meant for them. “I wanted to be able to share their stories,” she says. “My testimony would have been about women who have been affected by their policy, who have medical needs and have suffered dire consequences.. . .The committee did not get to hear real stories I had to share, about actual women who have been dramatically affected by this policy.”
That’s right. It seems Fluke intentionally chose to go to Georgetown so she could agitate and sway them to cover contraceptives. She then went to a hearing as a representative of women who hadn‘t known about Georgetown’s policy until it was too late. Unsympathetic observers might liken this to James O’Keefe attending a hearing to speak against ACORN on behalf of pimps. It certainly raises the question of why the women Fluke claims to speak for couldn’t present their stories for themselves.
Indeed, in a video made after she was denied the opportunity to testify, Fluke raises two “stories” from women who had emailed her, supposedly about their non-sex-related need of contraceptive medicine. She does not identify the emailers by name, or even by school, saying simply that they are students at an unnamed Catholic University:
If Fluke’s stories are real, many will likely call on her to let the women who sent them speak for themselves and stop hogging the spotlight, given that she did choose to attend Georgetown knowing full well what its policy was on contraceptives, and with every indication of being willing to risk the price tag — whether that price tag would be $3000 over 3 years or not.
Fluke deliberately placed herself and her comments during testimony in the spotlight, that is what activists thrive on, but it backfired the second she referenced contraception costing $3,000 during law school.
Enter Rush Limbaugh who dedicated a couple radio show segments to Fluke and saying "Well, what would you call someone who wants us to pay for her to have sex? What would you call that woman? You'd call 'em a slut, a prostitute or whatever."
Much virtual ink is being dedicated to Limbaugh's comments, to the hypocrisy of the left by flipping out over Limbaugh's comments while ignoring the same comments and worse by members of the liberal media, with even liberals noting the double standard, his apology, liberal public outcries against his advertisers, Fluke's prior activism, and how much it costs a college women to have sex while getting a law degree.
Pelosi's diversion worked, to a point. Public discourse was distracted, a nice weekend diversion, but when all is said and done, it will be Rush Limbaugh's comments, the money people like Fluke want taxpayers to spend on their sexual habits and the hypocrisy and double standards when one group uses sexist remarks compared to when another group does the same, that will be remembered.... not Flukes testimony.
I have to wonder if Sandra Fluke and Nancy Pelosi are more annoyed that their activism backfired or that Rush Limbaugh stole the show.
When the furor dies down though and the distraction goes away we will still be left with the original issue, Obama's war on religion, right back where we started.
Eyes back on the ball.
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