Out on a Limb? Bah!

As offensive as Rush Limbaugh's comments related to Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke are, I'm not sure they're actually the worst thing to come out of the recent debate regarding mandated coverage of contraception. I believe that dubious distinction is held by the fact that there seems to be little ability (or desire) to discuss the issue in clinical terms rather than emotional ones. Put another way, the focus of the debate is not about the tangible medical benefits of contraception but rather the reactions of people on both sides of the debate who see the other side's position as an attack on their personal values.

Even the people who set out to discuss the issue in more clinical terms have gotten caught up in the tsunami of rhetoric having to respond to vicious personal attacks rather than being able to discuss the medical aspects of the issue. This includes Fluke herself who wanted to testify at last month's congressional hearings about a fellow Georgetown student who had to have an ovary removed because of cysts that could have been prevented by affordable access to contraception. Admittedly, I don't know all the particulars of the case, but I'd have a hard time believing that the cost of that operation was more than what coverage of contraceptives would have cost.

This, of course, points to the larger problem in our health-care system. If people can't afford preventative care, it often leads to far more costly health problems down the line. If there's a moral issue to be debated here, that's where it lies not in a discussion that has no business barging its way into the bedrooms of consenting adults.

As for Limbaugh's suggestion that "the Feminazis" who want to have contraception paid for by their insurance company should make sex videos to justify the cost, there's only one way with which I can in good conscience dignify his comment with a response. I would ask him and the (far too many) people who seem to share his view whether they feel that men who want their insurance to cover Viagra or Cialis (i.e. medicines which truly exist only to enable people to have sex) should also make sex videos. If Limbaugh is truly the advocate of equality and other sacred American values, he should be more than willing to, shall we say, lay it on the line.