Rush Limbaugh–Sandra Fluke controversy

The Rush Limbaugh–Sandra Fluke controversy erupted on February 29, 2012, when American conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh made a series of remarks about Georgetown University law student and women's rights advocate Sandra Fluke, referring to her as a "slut" and as a "prostitute" for her testimony at an unofficial Congressional hearing in support of mandated private health insurance coverage for contraceptives. The comments were widely regarded as highly demeaning and misogynistic, and provoked a large-scale backlash that manifested through social media, focused on pressuring sponsors to pull their advertising from the program. Numerous companies have announced that they were discontinuing their advertising campaigns with Limbaugh and Clear Channel Communications, the distributor of his talk show.

Background

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee convened a panel scheduled for February 16, 2012, entitled "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?". Republican members invited 10 panelists, all heads of religions or religious institutions opposed to contraceptive mandates, and Democratic members invited Barry W. Lynn, a prominent UCC minister and leader of the American religious left.

Sandra Fluke's opening statement to Democratic Members of Congress.

Sandra Fluke's opening statement to Democratic Members of Congress.

Democrats asked the committee to substitute Sandra Fluke for Lynn. Fluke graduated from Cornell University in 2003 and spent five years working for Sanctuary for Families, a New York-based nonprofit aiding victims of domestic violence, where she launched the agency's pilot Program Evaluation Initiative. She co-founded the New York Statewide Coalition for Fair Access to Family Court, which successfully advocated for legislation granting access to civil orders of protection for unmarried victims of domestic violence, including LGBTQ victims and teens. Fluke was also a member of the Manhattan Borough President's Taskforce on Domestic Violence and numerous other New York City and New York State coalitions that successfully advocated for policy improvements impacting victims of domestic violence. While at Georgetown University Law Center, she worked on issues that involved domestic violence and human trafficking.

Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) refused on the grounds that "she lacked expertise in questions of religious freedoms under federal law." Then Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) complained that Issa "... failed to invite any women to testify about the negative impact that restrictive insurance coverage has on them.". Rep. Christopher Murphy (D-Connecticut), who had remained in the Committee room for the testimony of Dr. Allison Dabbs Garrett, J.D., and Dr. Laura Champion, M.D., argued for a second hearing to also discuss contraception issues and add more women's testimony. A copy of Sandra Fluke's remarks is available from ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/statement-Congress-letterhead-2nd%20hearing.pdf.

Fluke Responds to Nationwide Campaign Against Contraceptives

Fluke responds to Nationwide Campaign Against Contraceptives

Speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in a hearing that was not televised, Fluke argued in favor of requiring all private insurance plans to cover contraception coverage, even religious institutions. She said that over the three years as a law student, birth control could cost $3,000 in some cases. She continued that the lack of contraception coverage in the university insurance plans paid for by students and completely unsubsidized by the university would induce many low income students to go without contraceptives and that women's free health clinics cannot meet the need.

She then discussed the consequence of such policies, anecdotally citing a friend with polycystic ovary syndrome who needed the medication to treat this disease and whose out-of-pocket cost was over $100 per month. While the condition was "covered by Georgetown insurance", the insurance company repeatedly denied coverage of her prescription based on the idea that the true purpose of the medication was contraception, despite the doctor's verification of her condition. She also added that this is not a rare event for women with these medical conditions under insurance plans that did not cover contraception. She then stated that she wanted equal treatment for women's health issues and did not see the issue as being against the Catholic Church.

Remarks by Limbaugh

What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns? No! We're not the johns. (interruption) Yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word. Okay, so she's not a slut. She's "round heeled". I take it back.

— Rush Limbaugh, February 29, 2012

Rush Limbaugh attracted enormous negative attention after broadcasting personal attacks on Democratic spokeswoman Sandra Fluke while questioning her support for a federal contraception mandate that included religiously-affiliated institutions. On February 29, 2012, he stated:

What does it say about the college coed Susan Fluke [sic], who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.

He continued that day and stated:

Can you imagine if you're her parents how proud of Sandra Fluke you would be? Your daughter goes up to a congressional hearing conducted by the Botox-filled Nancy Pelosi and testifies she's having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the Pope.

On March 1, 2012, Limbaugh offered what he said was a “compromise” to contraception coverage: purchasing "all the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as possible". He continued that he "[ran] some numbers" on contraception costs and arguing that contraception coverage was "flat-out thievery" that would force taxpayers to pay to "satisfy the sexual habits of female law students at Georgetown". Later, he dismissed concerns over lack of access to contraception coverage and mocked Fluke's congressional testimony, affecting a baby's voice and pretending to cry, saying: "I'm going broke having sex. I need government to provide me condoms and contraception. It's not fair." He asked, "Ms. Fluke, have you ever heard of not having sex? Have you ever heard of not having sex so often?" After mentioning that Washington, D.C., Department of Health "will send you free condoms and lube," Limbaugh said:

So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.

During the same show, Limbaugh remarked that Fluke is "having so much sex, it's amazing she can still walk", and continued on to suggest that Georgetown should establish a "Wilt Chamberlain scholarship ... exclusively for women". He also asked, "Who bought your condoms in junior high? Who bought your condoms in the sixth grade? Or your contraception. Who bought your contraceptive pills in high school?" He described Fluke as "a woman who is happily presenting herself as an immoral, baseless, no-purpose-to-her life woman. She wants all the sex in the world whenever she wants it, all the time, no consequences. No responsibility for her behavior."

On March 2, 2012, Limbaugh defended his previous comments about Fluke, saying, "not one person says that, 'Well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have?". Limbaugh said that requiring insurance companies to cover contraception is "no different than if somebody knocked on my door that I don't know and said, 'You know what? I'm out of money. I can't afford birth-control pills, and I'm supposed to have sex with three guys tonight.' " Commenting on Fluke receiving a call from President Obama that her parents should be proud of her he said, "I'm gonna button my lip on that one." He went on to say that if his daughter had testified that "she's having so much sex she can't pay for it and wants a new welfare program to pay for it," he'd be "embarrassed" and "disconnect the phone", "go into hiding", and "hope the media didn't find me". He continued later, "Oh! Does she have more boyfriends? They're lined up around the block. They would have been in my day." He continued that Fluke testified that her "sex life is active. She's having sex so frequently that she can't afford all the birth-control pills that she needs. That's what she's saying."

During a three day period, Limbaugh attacked Fluke a total of 46 times.

Reaction to Limbaugh's remarks

Limbaugh's remarks aroused a public reaction, leading to the creation of a campaign to encourage Limbaugh's radio sponsors to stop advertising for him. As a result, as of March 3, 2012, Sleep Train, Select Comfort, Quicken Loans, GoToMyPC, Citrix Systems and LegalZoom have pulled their advertisements from Rush Limbaugh's radio show.

President Obama discusses his phone call to Sandra Fluke

President Barack Obama called Fluke in support. Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia described Limbaugh and his supporters' comments "as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of Sandra Fluke". Liberal politicians and pundits have responded by calling Limbaugh a "peculiar individual", "despicable", "disgusting", "loathsome", "a national disgrace", and questioned the need for hateful and derogatory behaviour within political discourse. Jesse Ferguson, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has claimed the comments were a defense of what she calls the "Republican war on women". A petition was established to discontinue broadcast of Limbaugh's program on the U.S.-government-funded Armed Forces Network.

Democratic political analyst for Fox News Kirsten Powers agreed that Limbaugh was a misogynist and deserved to be boycotted, but expanded her position further stating, "the liberals who led the charge need to start holding their own side accountable." She then cited specific examples of crude and vulgar language being directed toward women by Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann, Matt Taibbi and Bill Maher. Bill Maher responded by saying that this is false equivalency stating that 'whenever their guys get in trouble, they point me out even when it's not the same thing'. He went on to clarify that attacking a single individual who happens to be a public figure like Sarah Palin as a comedian on subscription network like HBO or a comedy routine is not the same as attacking all woman who use contraception on public airwaves. At the same time, Maher went on to say he felt the only thing Limbaugh was guilty of was making a bad joke with a “disgusting sentiment”.

When it was discovered that the Peter Gabriel song "Sledgehammer" was played during Limbaugh's remarks about Fluke, Gabriel asked that the song be no longer played on Limbaugh's show. A written statement from Gabriel's representative read: "Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh's extraordinary attack on Sandra Flute [sic]. It is obvious from anyone that knows Peter's work that he would never approve such a use. He has asked his representatives to make sure his music is withdrawn and especially from these unfair aggressive and ignorant comments."

Limbaugh's apology and Fluke's response

On March 3, Limbaugh repeated his previous attacks against Fluke and insurance coverage for contraception. Later that day he released an apology on his official website:

For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. / I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level. / My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.

On March 5, 2012, Limbaugh repeated parts of his apology on his show, but criticized the reaction he got saying:

I acted too much like the leftists who despise me. I descended to their level, using names and exaggerations. It's what we've come to expect from them, but it's way beneath me.

The same day, Fluke responded to his latest apology on ABC's The View saying:

I don't think that a statement like this, saying that his choice of words was not the best, changes anything, and especially when that statement is issued when he's under significant pressure from his sponsors who have begun to pull their support from the show. / I think any woman who has ever been called these types of names is [shocked] at first. / But then I tried to see this for what it is, and I believe that what it is, is an attempt to silence me, to silence the millions of women and the men who support them who have been speaking out about this issue and conveying that contraception is an important healthcare need that they need to have met in an affordable, accessible way.

She said Limbaugh's comments were not of "one person who went crazy" and made one inappropriate remark, "He insulted me more than 50 times over three days," and also pointed to other right-wing commentators such as Glenn Beck who made similar personal attacks.

Support for Fluke

On the same day the Feminist Majority Foundation started a pledge drive in support called "Stand with Sandra". A statement in support of Fluke was signed by the vast majority of the Georgetown University Law Center faculty, including a Jesuit priest, as well as several hundred law professors at schools nationwide. Fluke has announced she's considering legal action against Limbaugh for slander. Legal experts said Fluke can sue Limbaugh for slander.

Criticism of Fluke

Commentator Bill O'Reilly weighed in, stating, "You want me to give you my hard-earned money so you can have sex?" O'Reilly went on, saying that, since Fluke wanted society to cover her "activities", the government should also have paid for his college football equipment, because an injury on the field and a subsequent hospital stay could "cost society a lot". However, ThinkProgress responded by pointing out that Bill O'Reilly's got his facts completely wrong. Fluke was advocating for contraception to be covered under Georgetown University’s private insurance plan and was not asking taxpayers to pay for anything. Also she didn't discuss herself during the testimony, she advocated for other women including her friend who developed ovarian cysts and need prescription birth control. Also, Congressman Darrell Issa, who had originally denied Fluke the ablity to testify stated in a letter to committee Democrats, "I am struck by your clear failure to recognize your own contributions to the denigration of this discussion and attacks on people of religious faith." Fluke was also criticized by University of Rochester professor and former Slate columnist Steven Landsburg, who said that Limbaugh's web-video analogy was "spot on". Landsburg called Fluke an "extortionist with an overweening sense of entitlement."

Writing for the The Weekly Standard, John McCormack wrote, "Fluke's testimony was very misleading. Birth control pills can be purchased for 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. 'That's the price without insurance,' the Target employee said. Nine dollars is less than the price of two beers at a Georgetown bar." However, a spokesperson for Target later told the Daily Caller that this $9 rate was exclusive to a program that provides discounted prescription drug rates to employees of participating local businesses. This rate would not have been available to Georgetown Law students like Fluke. Planned Parenthood estimates the cost of birth control pills at "about $15–$50" a month.

Jacob Sullum, an editor at self-proclaimed libertarian Reason Magazine wrote, "The essence of Fluke's argument is that reproductive freedom requires free birth control. By the same logic, religious freedom requires kosher food subsidies, freedom of speech requires taxpayer-funded computers, and the right to keep and bear arms requires government-supplied guns."

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin called Fluke "just another professional femme-a-gogue helping to manufacture a false narrative" about what Democrats call a Republican "War on Women".

Loss of sponsors

Advertisers quickly began to pull their advertising from the Rush Limbaugh Show. GEICO, Quicken Loans, Sleep Train, Sleep Number, Citrix Systems and Legal Zoom discontinued their sponsorship March 2. After Limbaugh's apology, Carbonite dropped advertisements from his show on March 3. In a public statement, CEO David Friend stated:

No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.

Public response, organized by social media websites, continued to pressure other advertisers to drop Limbaugh's show. ProFlowers pulled their advertisements from Limbaugh's show on March 4, 2012.

On March 5, AOL, Allstate Insurance, Bonobos apparel and Tax Resolution Services suspended advertising with Limbaugh's show. Sears Holdings Corporation clarified that Sears and Kmart "did not intentionally advertise" on the show, that the ads were aired by mistake on WABC during a news break of the show, and took steps to ensure that stations know when to run their ads.

On March 5, KPUA, a full-service talk radio station serving Hilo, Hawaii, on which channel the Rush Limbaugh program was the only conservative talk program, announced that they discontinued the program from their lineup, stating "... it has never been our goal to allow our station to be used for personal attacks and intolerance." In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, broadcaster WBEC, a channel that carries most of the Premiere Networks lineup, did likewise, with its general manager saying that "[Limbaugh has] taken it too far."

Clear Channel Communications, the owner of Premiere Networks and a large number of Limbaugh's affiliates, has reaffirmed its support for Limbaugh, whose contract runs through 2016.

As of March 8, Limbaugh's talk show has lost at least 45 sponsors, a number that includes advertisers that purchased ad time on local stations but have never bought national advertising on the show itself. The Sleep Train requested to resume its advertising on the show on March 8, but Limbaugh declined the company's request. Limbaugh also rejected overtures from Avid Life Media, the owners of alternative dating sites AshleyMadison.com and SeekingArrangement.com, despite erroneous reports that Limbaugh had accepted the companies' offers to advertise on the program.

On March 9, 2012, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin announced that she had purchased air time on the program to advertise Twitchy, a news aggregator focused on stories culled from social media posts.

Democratic criticism of Limbaugh

In a letter to donors, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), wrote that "Rush Limbaugh, the voice of the ultraconservative right, issued one of the most vile tirades against women I've ever heard." Minority Leader in the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has called the comments "obnoxious" and "vicious and inappropriate attacks". Seventy five Democratic Party lawmakers have signed a letter expressing outrage at the remarks labeling them as "sexually charged, patently offensive, obscene", "indecent" and "an abuse of public airwaves.

Republican criticism of Limbaugh

U.S. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), said that Limbaugh's comments were "over the top" and that his apology was not sincere, while disagreeing with Fluke on the insurance mandate. George Will condemned Republicans and suggested other Republicans were scared of Limbaugh.

John McCain (R-Arizona) said Limbaugh's statements were unacceptable "in every way" and "should be condemned" by people across the political spectrum.

David Frum, former special assistant to President George W. Bush: "Limbaugh's verbal abuse of Sandra Fluke set a new kind of low. I can't recall anything as brutal, ugly and deliberate ever being said by such a prominent person and so emphatically repeated. This was not a case of a bad "word choice". It was a brutally sexualized accusation, against a specific person, prolonged over three days."

House Speaker John Boehner called Limbaugh's remarks "inappropriate".

Philosophy of human rights jurisprudence

As a public advocate representing the interests of her clients, Ms. Fluke did not reference her own conduct, therefore Limbaugh's accusation of personal venality is groundless. Rush Limbaugh made an error of logic or right reason, rendering his characterization of Ms Fluke a falsehood, that he corrected with his apology. A truer, more accurate label to describe the conduct of one who advocates for the venal interests of clients, proffering hire for service to those soliciting such services, could be characterized by the pejorative epithet madam or pimp. Such conduct is properly proscribed under U.S. law as a form of human trafficking. In medieval moral philosophy, Dante's poetic ruffiari would be equivalent to describe those who contravene human rights this way, acts of the legal type alienation of autonomy. Such delicts, or acts not licit, eggress on the propriety of human nature in violation of personhood and its inherent dignity (an "endowed," "self-evident" truth as the Declaration of Independence defines it). Certain properties of being human are not subject to positive law, or enfeoffed by government but are in fact antecedent to positive law or government rule and are inviolate human rights. Inviolable refers to a legal title that cannot be abrogated from its rightful owner, raped from its true possessor or denied by an unjust oppressor via mandate of government authority.

At the time of her testimony, Ms. Fluke has not concluded her studies towards a graduate qualification in human rights jurisprudence. Both Georgetown University's School of Law and graduate departments in government, public policy, foreign service are internationally renowned for promotion of humanism, the modern political philosophy that came into vogue at the establishment of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Prior to the 20th century, the rationale Las Casas developed at the School of Salamanca during Spanish colonial times was not widely known or adopted outside Catholic territories. Western civilization before the Reformation had enjoyed universal understanding of the ancient pagan notion of natural law, the metaphysics of Aristotle as articulated by Aquinas however the political ruptures and upheavals of the Enlightenment called such universal assumptions into question.

While Mr. Limbaugh has acknowledged erring in use of reason, Ms. Fluke has not. Her arguments are as irrational and false under the logic held and taught in the Jesuit tradition. Her act of testifying in support of the Obama Administration's advocacy of mandatory private health insurance subsidy for abortion, sterilization or contraception can be characterized, philosophically-speaking, as a type of human rights violation equivalent to human trafficking. Ms. Fluke's intellectual position is incompatible with a Roman Catholic understanding of both positive law and democratic governance. While the University has not commented publicly on the incongruence of a student attacking the wisdom tenets of an institution whose reputation for excellence in this area she seeks to profit from, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has made its position clear in a statement dated February 10, 2012 in defense of conscience of Roman Catholic students at Georgetown, and their faculty, staff or benefactors worldwide.

See also

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• Misogyny and mass media
• Procreative beneficence