Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law School student Republicans refused to allow to testify at a House Committee hearing on the religious exemption on contraception coverage and women’s health, addressed the Democratic National Convention last night in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fluke spoke about how the outcome of November Election could impact women’s rights.
Earlier this year, Fluke spoke out on the importance of the Obama Administration’s rule to ensure that students attending Catholic institutions have access to contraceptive coverage under the preventive care package of the Affordable Care Act. Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh attacked Fluke on his radio show, calling her a “slut.”
Last night, Sandra Fluke pointed out that she was silenced just as many other women are silenced every day. She stated, “Because it happened in Congress, people noticed. But it happens all the time. Many women are shut out and silenced. So while I’m honored to be standing at this podium, it easily could have been any one of you. I’m here because I spoke out, and this November, each of us must do the same.”
In endorsing the Obama Administrations’ policies on women’s health, Fluke said “We’d have the right to choose. It’s an America in which no one can charge us more than men for the exact same health insurance; in which no one can deny us affordable access to the cancer screenings that could save our lives; in which we decide when to start our families.”
Fluke spoke of the sharp contrast presented by Republican policies on women’s health as she described “An America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms. An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need. An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve help, and which don’t.”
Media Resources: Washington Post 9/5/12; Feminist Newswire 8/13/12, 3/1/12, 2/2/12
