Sandra Fluke: Slurs Won’t Silence Women
I continue to be amazed and appalled at the right wing’s ongoing vicious attacks on law student Sandra Fluke, who had the audacity to testify before Congress while female.
For one example out of many, here’s Ryan Dobson, son of religious right bigwig James Dobson, with yet another disgusting sexist attack: Ryan Dobson on ‘Family Talk’ Assails Sandra Fluke for ‘Sleeping Around’.
Dobson: President Obama calls [Sandra Fluke] and says ‘I called you because of my own daughters, your parents must be proud.’ Really? Seriously? So Obama, when your daughter is a third year student at a college who sleeps around enough to where she’s struggling financially because she can’t afford contraception, that’s going to make you proud of your daughter? I cannot imagine a father in this country or anywhere that wakes up in the morning and is like, ‘I’m so glad my daughter sleeps around; it just makes me so proud that my daughter is sleeping around and spending money on contraception.’
At this point, none of these people can use the excuse of ignorance any more; they know that Ms Fluke did not say one word in her testimony about her sex life. They’re simply lying about this, and the lying is almost universal on the right — evidence of serious psychosexual problems, erupting out into the public seemingly beyond their control. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Meanwhile, Sandra Fluke has an opinion column today at CNN, showing the mental midgets of the right wing media how to behave with class even while they’re savagely attacking her in the most personal terms: Sandra Fluke: Slurs Won’t Silence Women.
By now, many have heard the stories I wanted to share thanks to the congressional leaders and members of the media who have supported me and millions of women in speaking out.
Because we spoke so loudly, opponents of reproductive health access demonized and smeared me and others on the public airwaves. These smears are obvious attempts to distract from meaningful policy discussions and to silence women’s voices regarding their own health care.
These attempts to silence women and the men who support them have clearly failed. I know this because I have received so many messages of support from across the country — women and men speaking out because they agree that contraception needs to be treated as a basic health care service.
Who are these supporters?
They are women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, who need contraception to prevent cysts from growing on their ovaries, which if unaddressed can lead to infertility and deadly ovarian cancer. They are sexual assault victims, who need contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
They are Catholic women, who see no conflict between their social justice -based faith and family planning. They are new moms, whose doctors fear that another pregnancy too soon could jeopardize the mother’s health and the potential child’s health too. They are mothers and grandmothers who remember all too well what it was like to be called names decades ago, when they were fighting for a job, for health care benefits, for equality.
They are husbands, partners, boyfriends and male friends who know that without access to contraception, the women they care about can face unfair obstacles to participating in public life. And yes, they are young women of all income levels, races, classes and ethnicities who need access to contraception to control their reproduction, pursue their education and career goals and prevent unintended pregnancy. And they will not be silenced.