

In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC Thursday, billionaire Santorum backer Foster Friess said that debates over the candidate's personal objections to contraception are overblown, adding that, in his day, "gals" used aspirin as birth control.

In a rather strange joke, Friess said: "This contraception thing, my gosh it's so inexpensive. Back in my day they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives, the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly." Friess is presumably saying all women who didn't want to become pregnant were abstinent and thus had no need for birth control.

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell stuttered for a moment before saying, "Excuse me, I'm just trying to catch my breath from that."

Earlier in his comments, Friess dismissed the debate over Santorum's personal objections to birth control as a waste of time, saying that America has bigger problems to face. But his colorful comments suggest birth control will not be leaving the headlines any time soon.

Conservative reporter Matt Lewis wrote yesterday that Santorum's earlier comments about birth control will make trouble for Santorum's campaign, and suggested that the candidate might need to have a "contraception speech" to clarify his position. "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," Santorum said in October about contraception, though he has also said that he supports individuals' choice to use it.

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