Side note: Never in a billion years thought I'd need to say this, but please do not tell anyone you write for this blog. I, Hailey Dunn, am the sole creator and thus far writer. Especially do not tell prospective grad schools because when they contact me I will tell them I don't know who the hell you are and what is I'm sure an already weak resumé will quickly become as weak as a watered down cranberry vodka. Also, this blog is quite minor so to act like this is your claim to fame is sad to say the least...
Anywho, as I said before, I'd planned to do a piece on Sandra Fluke and now, as many mustangs surely know, is quite an appropriate time to do so. Sandra Fluke... shall I compare thee to a summer's day? No, I won't. You are more like an engorged leech. First of all, I think it's valid to point out that while the subject of human rights should not now or ever be put aside due to other important matters, I think it is the height of stupidity to be focusing so much attention on the care of women's "reproductive health" right now. If we get our economy back up and running your odds of being able to pop Yaz like pez and dance around with a Nuva ring you paid for will be significantly greater.
This woman was a nobody really when she was projected into the public eye last winter. She sought to testify in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the importance of insurance covered birth control during a birth control mandate discussion, but was blocked from doing so by the big, bad republicans. (It has been stated that her name was submitted too late to be included, but democrats disputed that claim.) She ended up with an audience of democratic House members. Some people heard of this as it was a small scale scandal, but most Americans did not. Rush Limbaugh ended up being the one to catapult her into the public eye and make her smarmy little self the new champion of the feminist movement. On his Feburary 29th show, Limbaugh had this to say about Fluke:
"[Fluke] 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."
His words, not mine. I'm not saying she's a slut, but her demanding that institutions who object to coverage that includes contraception on moral grounds be forced by the government to still provide it is repugnant. As a student of Georgetown University at the time, her complaint was that a number of students, along with her married friend and polycystic ovarian syndrom having lesbian friend, could not afford to take birth control they needed due to the stringent requirements placed on the dispensing of contraception by the university's health plan. Through her lamentations of the Jesuit college's discrimination of women and woeful assertion that her possessing ovaries should not constitute having to choose between healthcare and education, a vulnerable down trodden picture of a beleaguered graduate student was painted. What this comes down to is freedom of religion. While I personally know few Catholics as I come from a largely Baptist town, I can say the ones I do know are quite earnest in their convictions. It is not their legal responsibility or moral imperative to provide or provide access to a service or product that is in contrast to their own beliefs.
Part of her testimony adresses the inability to get free or discounted birth control as free clinics are being downsized and shut down. A quick google of Planned Parenthood, the name brand free clinic if you will, will tell you that there are currently 820 locations and as of the fiscal year 2008-2009, it had a budget of $1.04 billion. From July 1st 2009- June 30th 2010, it was reported that PP received $487.4 million in "government health services grants and reimbursements"(coming from tax dollars) and performed 329,455 abortions. Let us all take a moment to mourn the hard times of Planned Parenthood.
Interesting fact, Fluke, prior to attending Georgetown, was a women's rights activist and stated that she had examined the health insurance policy of the university and decided to attend with the purpose of taking on the coverage it carried. Basically, she knew what she was getting into, knew it was a Catholic institution that did not believe in administering contraception for non-medical purposes and jumped in with both feet to start trouble. She was also initially billed as a 23 year old coed, but we now know that she is in fact 31. I don't know about you, but rather than an impassioned student activist, she's kind of starting to come off to me as a liberal pawn. Also, not sure when this was updated but according to US News, to be a full time law student at Georgetown costs $46,865 and part time costs $33,500. Unless you have a hefty scholarship, that's a lot of money to be paying for school and you can sit there and tell me that you don't have $100/ month? (That's what according to her testimony her PCOS having friend needed for her prescription) Georgetown is also ranked #13 in the US in terms of law schools. While that is nothing to scoff at, that means that if you are so in need of contraception coverage, you have 12 other even better schools to choose from that probably don't care if or why you're "on the pill". Lucky you!
I have much more to complain about in regards to this vile woman, but this is a good start. I don't take kindly to someone going to great lengths to be painted a victim and as far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what she did. She has since ridden the wave of her "poor little me" routine all the way to being a speaker at the DNC where she proved that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.
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