Barack Obama has inserted himself into the Sandra Fluke – Rush Limbaugh controversy. Like he has not been involved from the beginning. Obama started this whole chapter of modern American politics back last summer when the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services began considering implementing the requirement for all employers to provide birth control and contraceptives as part of the Obama health care plan. By late December, Obama′s poll numbers were so horrible, particularly among women, that his reelection hopes looked grim at best. So creating a controversy to recover the female vote was essential. It is no accident that the matter of contraceptives came up on the January 7 presidential debate on ABC with the Republican candidates. Just as it was no coincidence that two weeks later, Kathleen Sebilius, head of HHS, announced the birth control requirement for employers.

Obama phone Sandra Fluke

Since very few people of note in the Conservative movement are coming to Limbaugh′s defense, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have already chastised Rush publicly, I shall endeavor to offer an argument or two. First, kudos to Bill O′Reilly whom did give a very well structured defense in regards to the essence of the issue last night during his Fox News show. Big Bill posed the question that if he wants to play football in college, should not the federal government pay for his protective equipment, such as helmets, shoulder pads, etc., as there is a health risk in participating in such recreational activity? Well played, Bill, well played!

My first point is that while the Liberals are attempting to paint this as a health issue, is not Sandra Fluke at an even greater risk of contracting an STD? She can pop all the birth control pills she wants, even get an IUD implanted in her, and still be subject to a wide range of sexually transmitted diseases. Progressives may view becoming pregnant and having children as a disease, but STDs are far more dangerous and deadly. Obama may tell Fluke that her parents should be proud of her for taking a stand on birth control, but can her parents really feel any pride knowing that she is tempting fate and subjecting herself to a host of horrible outcomes?

My second point is an economic one. While Sandra Fluke may want the government to subsidize her recreational sex, should they not really be regulating her under the Commerce Clause? After all, by giving herself away for free, she is hurting hard-working prostitutes in the greater Georgetown area. On this matter we turn to that infamous Supreme Court decision, Wickard v. Filburn in 1942.

Under FDR, the Department of Agriculture began enforcing the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 limiting the amount of wheat that farmers grow. Roscoe Filbrun, a farmer, was nailed in 1940, accused by our federal government of growing an excessive amount of wheat. Filburn admitted to this but claimed that the extra wheat he grew was for personal consumption. His lawyers argued that since this extra wheat did not cross state lines, it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Clause, which enables Congress to regulate interstate commercial enterprises. While the lower courts ruled in favor of Filburn′s right to grow his own food, the case eventually got bumped up to the FDR-stacked Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the government. The argument being that even if Filburn consumed his own wheat, such still impacted the larger, interstate market.

So Sandra Fluke and her Georgetown University lady friends who are out to have as much sex as they can are actually impacting not only prostitution locally, but perhaps in the entire Mid-Atlantic region! Now, you might say that I am being ridiculous here, since A) prostitution is illegal in most of America and B) prostitution is considered immoral by much of society. Well, the same can be said of what Fluke is doing, If she is having sex with, say, a local public official who is married, then she is technically participating in an illegal act. Most communities do have morals clauses governing the behavior of their personnel, be they teachers, police officers, etc.

Plus, Sandra Fluke is stomping on the prostitute′s ability to climb the social ladder as well. According to the latest U.S. Census, women outnumber men in America 51.1% to 48.9%. In Victorian era England, the gender gap was even larger, about 4%, resulting in what was referred back then as ′redundant women.′ Megara Bell wrote in her paper for the University of Massachusetts, ″The Fallen Woman in Fiction and Legislation″, that as many as one in twelve women in London may have been prostitutes. That unlike other working class women of the day, usually domestic servants, prostitutes enjoyed a much better life style economically, as well as socially. Not only did they earn more money than ′virtuous women′, they also had access to pubs and clubs where they could mingle and meet men, moving up the class ladder.

Perhaps the best known figure in history who gained political power in this manner was Empress Theodora of Byzantium. Her future husband, Justinian, was not of sufficient royal blood and began his career in the Roman Army. He met Theodora via her trade. She developed her cunning and thirst for the good life while working in brothels as a teenager, then later was a performer at rage of the day, the ′Donkey Show′. Such women had considerable energy and determination. It is known that one of her stage performances involved the use of geese as part of her act. After they were married, Theodora was clearly the brains and brawn of this power-seeking duo. Indeed, Justinian was ready to throw the towel in and abdicate his throne in 532 A.D. During the Nika uprising. But not Theodora! She held the empire together by her great tenacity and sheer force of will, forged during her youth in the brothels and at the ′adult entertainment′ stages of Byzantium.

Barack Obama calling Sandra Fluke on the Rush Limbaugh remarks is just the latest chapter in the Liberal-Progressive plot to turn the birth control subject from the very real Obama War on Religion, into the trumped-up GOP War on Women. Real Republicans and Conservatives know that this case about mandating contraceptive coverage has nothing to do with health risks. Indeed, Sandra Fluke is putting herself at an even greater health risk of contracting a STD since no type of birth control can guarantee safety. Given the harm that the Liberal-Progressive movement is engaged in, they are actually the ones waging a War on Women, not the GOP! Sandra Fluke is doing a grave disservice to women, first by encouraging even greater health risks and secondly by denying those less fortunate than herself an economic alternative to college.