The Georgetown University law student said the president expressed his concern for her. Obama calls student dissed by Rush

President Barack Obama on Friday phoned the Georgetown University law student who was called a “slut” by Rush Limbaugh to find out if she is OK.

“He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women,” Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student said. “And what was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me. So I just appreciated that very much.”


Fluke, who said she had received Obama’s call while waiting in the green room before her interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, also said of the phone call, “He did express his concern for me and wanted to make sure that I was ok, which, I am. I’m ok.”

Minutes after Fluke appeared on MSNBC, White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed the call in a press briefing with reporters, saying, “He wanted to offer his support to her. He wanted to express his disappointment that she has been the subject of inappropriate personal attacks and thank her for exercising her rights as a citizen to speak out on an issue of public policy.”

(See also: Boehner calls Limbaugh remark “inappropriate”)

Carney noted that the call was a “very good conversation” that lasted several minutes.

“This is not a quote from him (Obama), but I think he thinks they were reprehensible, they were disappointing,” Carney said. “It is disappointing that those kinds of personal and crude attacks could be leveled against someone like this young law school student who was simply expressing her opinion on a matter of public policy and doing so with a great deal of poise.”

Limbaugh, who has shown no signs of offering an apology to Fluke but has not used the word “slut” since Wednesday, reacted to Carney’s remarks on his show Friday.

“Carney, the White House press secretary, just said that Obama finds the attacks on Fluke to be reprehensible, disappointing, personal and crude. So I ask Jay Carney: Will President Obama now give back the $1 million donation that Bill Maher just gave his super PAC?” Limbaugh asked. “You want to get some tapes of some of the things that Bill Maher has called Sarah Palin? The ‘C word’ over and over again?”

And as he discovered while on the air that Obama had called Fluke, Limbaugh mocked their exchange. “Aw. That is so compassionate! What a great guy,” Limbaugh said. “The president called her to make sure she’s okay. What is she, 30 years old? Thirty years old, a student at Georgetown law who admits to having so much sex that she can’t afford it anymore.”

Later on the show, the radio host laced into the president for telling Fluke that her parents should be proud of her.

“Your daughter appears before a congressional committee and says she’s having so much sex, she can’t pay for it and wants a new welfare program to pay for it. Would you be proud? I don’t know about you, but I’d be embarrassed. I’d disconnect the phone. I’d go into hiding and hope the media didn’t find me,” Limbaugh said.

Fluke came under fire from the conservative radio show host this week after she testified on Capitol Hill about women’s access to contraception. Georgetown is a Jesuit school, and the law student explained at the hearing the hardships she and fellow female students face because the university’s insurance coverage does not offer free contraception coverage.

After calling Fluke a “prostitute” and a “slut” on his show Wednesday, Limbaugh was condemned by lawmakers in Washington, and a social media blitz against his show is in full play, with one company announcing early Friday that it would no longer advertise on the show.

Fluke, who has made several TV appearances since coming under attack on the airwaves, told Mitchell Friday that she “very much” appreciates the support she has received from the Georgetown community.

“I think it’s really an example of what kind of model we should look to in our national discourse, because clearly the president of the university and I disagree about the issues, but we are both able to handle this in a civil manner,” she said.

Speaking about the politically charged discourse surrounding the issue of contraception coverage, Fluke told Mitchell that her own parents were of a “different political persuasion” than she is.

“So I think that is emblematic of the fact that broadly, Americans agree that women need access to basic health care,” she said. “So they are proud, they agree with that position.”

Georgetown University President John DeGioia said in a statement Friday, “One need not agree with her substantive position to support her right to respectful free expression. And yet, some of those who disagree with her position – including Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels – responded with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.”

Mackenzie Weinger contributed to this story.