You know what's really sad the vomit Rush Limbaugh has been spewing over the last few days. He has no idea what Sandra Fluke is really talking about.
First of all, let me state that my daughter needs birth control to protect her ovaries, not to keep her from getting pregnant.
My daughter is a virgin. I know this to be true. I know there are skeptics out there. Trust me on this one.
A couple of years ago, my daughter started having intense pains in her abdomen. She would literally double over in pain. I took her to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst. Later on, it was found that they were non-cancerous. However, she kept having some serious pains. Long story short, we had to put her on the pill. This keeps the size of the cysts down. She has not has pain down there ever since.
This was reported today by MSNBC about what exactly Sandra Fluke said during her non-official testimony to Congress about HMO-subsidized birth control.
Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, had testified during an unofficial Democratic committee hearing about how a friend had been unable to pay for the birth control needed to shrink ovarian cysts and help preserve her fertility. Fluke had been previously blocked from testifying before a Republican-led, all-male congressional panel on contraception and religious freedom.
MSNBC "Women Roar Back at Rush's Rhetoric" by Rita Rubin March 2, 2012
What her friend needed was hormone therapy, which is basically what birth control is.
HMOs support this kind of treatment. They also support female contreception because it lowers to the cost of dealing with pregnancies. Hospitals realize this, too. A 17-year old runaway who is pregnant does not get turned away when she walks into an ER to deliver her child, even if she doesn't have insurance. A simple trip to Planned Parenthood could have easily prevented that.
Just like men should get free prostate screenings once a year, have Viagra funded under their health plans (which several do), birth control should be available at little or no cost to women who need it and, frankly, want it.
I have had prostatitis. It smarts. My daughter says, "That was nothing. Try getting kicked in your gut for hours. That's what it felt like."
This is what Sandra Fluke was really talking about. We men get major league coverage for our issues concerning some of our private parts. Prostate cancer has become one of the most treatable conditions for men over 50. There is a 70-80% survival rate, yet we didn't need any kind of "Race for the Cure" to either raise money or awareness for this disease. We just got covered.
It's time women get some appreciation for what they go through as well.
p.s. I read the "apology" from Rush Limbaugh towards Sandra Fluke. I'll believe it when he reads it on the air...with feeling.