Letter: Dislikes GOP, Limbaugh

Dear Editor,

It is obvious Republicans are escalating their war against our rights. In addition to its war on voters’ rights and workers’ rights, the GOP has now declared war a woman’s right to health care. From the statements made by key Republican spokesmen, the major focus of the GOP agenda is to knuckle-drag us back to the cave days when women were barefoot, pregnant and permanently assigned to the kitchen.

Last week the Senate narrowly defeated the Republican-sponsored “Blount amendment” which attempted to allow employers to deny insurance coverage for birth control, immunizations, prenatal care for out of wedlock children or HIV screenings for gay employees. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has even said people shouldn’t even use birth control. About birth control use, Santorum has said, “It’s not okay, because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They’re supposed to be within marriage, for purposes that are, yes, conjugal... but also procreative.”

Last week, chief conservative spokesman Rush Limbaugh expanded his vocabulary of hate against women fighting for their personal and health rights. Usually happy to call these women “fem-i-Nazis,” last week Limbaugh started calling them “sluts” and “prostitutes.” Limbaugh’s attacks where leveled against Sandra Fluke, a college student who testified before Congress on the need for birth control coverage in insurance plans.

About Fluke’s testimony, Limbaugh said, “What does it say about a college coed…who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute.”

Despite Limbaugh’s fantasies, Fluke’s testimony included nothing about being paid for sex. However, her testimony did include a discussion about a friend who had to have an ovary removed because the insurance company wouldn’t cover the prescription birth control she needed for the hormone therapy needed to stop the growth of cysts.

Of course, Limbaugh is entitled to his fantasies, but never forget that he is the chief and highest paid spokesman for the conservatives driving today’s Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, if all men were creeps like Limbaugh, women wouldn’t need birth control.

Tags: opinion, letters, politics