Update, 2:45 p.m.: Georgetown University officials have released a statement defending law student Sandra Fluke, calling Rush Limbaugh’s attacks “misogynistic” and Fluke “a model of civil discourse.” And President Obama has called to thank her for “speaking out about the concerns of American women,” according to Fluke.

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Rush Limbaugh (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The Georgetown law student derided as a “slut” and “prostitute” by Rush Limbaugh for her support of women’s access to birth control spoke out against the conservative talk show host Friday morning.

Appearing on NBC’s “Today,” Sandra Fluke said she was “stunned” and “outraged” by Limbaugh’s comments, which she deemed “an attempt to silence me, to silence all of us from speaking about the healthcare we need.”

Fluke, a third-year law student, testified about Georgetown’s policy on contraception during an unofficial hearing last Thursday that was led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She argued that birth control should be covered by health insurance at religious institutions.

Pelosi arranged for Fluke to testify after she was excluded from an official congressional hearing on the contraceptive mandate in the nation’s health-care law. Republicans who ran the hearing said Fluke’s name was submitted too late (Democrats disagree). None of the women who testified at the congressional hearing spoke in favor of the mandate.

At Pelosi’s hearing, Fluke said her fellow students at Georgetown, a Jesuit university, pay as much as $1,000 a year for birth control because campus health plans do not include coverage of contraceptives for women.

“What does that make her?” Limbaugh said on his show Wednesday night. “It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute.”

“She wants to be paid to have sex,” Limbaugh continued. “She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception.”

On Thursday, Limbaugh expanded on his thoughts but offered no apology. Referring to controversial remarks by Foster Friess, a supporter of former senator Rick Santorum, Limbaugh said, “I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want.”

That afternoon, there were reports of a bomb threat at Limbaugh’s South Florida home, but an investigation revealed that the suspicious package was not dangerous and unrelated to Limbaugh’s remarks.

According to the Palm Beach Daily News, the package turned out to be an electronic plaque commemorating the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.

Thursday night, Fluke appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” calling Limbaugh’s comments “outside the bounds of civil discourse.”



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