Birth Control Debate Requirement-Know what Birth Control is and How it Works

One thing that Rush Limbaugh made painfully obvious during his disgusting tirade against Sandra Fluke last week is that he has know idea what birth control is.

That's the most dangerous aspect of this entire situation. His language and edict in general is horrendous- he's a very popular sad shock jock and that's nothing new. I want to point out why his tirade against birth control goes above and beyond a base, rude, gross and obnoxious take on a serious situation.

To revisit-

"What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex." -Rush Limbaugh,

The next day:

"A Georgetown coed told Nancy Pelosi's hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex they're going broke, so you and I should have to pay for their birth control. So what would you call that? I called it what it is. So, I'm offering a compromise today: I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want. ... So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

So what does Rush get right about birth control pills?
Sure, he knows that it's a pill that women take and that it costs money and he doesn't want to pay for it. But with that logic the pill isn't any different from the aspirin he volunteers to spring for except that men don't need it.

Rush makes a fool out of himself with lines like "she's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception."

You need a new condom for every time you have sex but you don't need more birth control. You don't take less or more of the pill as you increase or decrease your sexual activity. In fact Women don't only take oral contraceptives to prevent pregnancies.

I am not so naive to think that this spells the end for Rush Limbaugh- though many of his advertisers have jumped ships and two radio stations (one in Pittsfield Ma. and the other in Hawaii) banned his show. I think he's brought to light one of the key factors in the birth control equation. Educating the public about what contraception is and what it actually does negates at least part of Limbaugh's gaffe because it would expose the fact that you can't criticize what you can't or choose not to understand.

The problem for women is that he does and he does it in the most disgustingly ignorant way as he possibly could.