WASHINGTON – A right-wing US radio talk show host who called a female law student “a slut” over a contraception row apologized for the insult on Saturday, noting that he had chosen his words badly.
“My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices,” Rush Limbaugh said on his website.
“For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack,” he added.
President Barack Obama on Friday telephoned the student, Sandra Fluke, in a show of support after Limbaugh’s comments ignited the controversy.
Fluke appeared last month before US lawmakers to argue that health insurance plans should cover the cost of contraception – a key, but controversial requirement in Obama’s 2010 health care law.
Fluke described how female students at Georgetown University, located in the US capital Washington, had been denied contraception because of the prestigious school’s Catholic affiliations.
She also told of a friend who lost an ovary after developing cysts which could have been treated by birth control pills, and argued that contraception could cost a woman as much as $3,000 during her law school studies.
“It’s not about church and state,” Fluke told the hearing. “It’s about women’s health.”
But Limbaugh, a star on conservative talk radio, denounced Fluke.
“What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, 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,” Limbaugh said.
“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. What does that make us? We’re the pimps.”
The issue of birth control has been prominent as the 2012 election campaign heats up, after Republicans claimed Obama’s provision requiring organizations to offer free contraception on employee health plans was a war on religion.