. . . Despite Rush Limbaugh’s campaign against what he possibly fantasized Sandra Fluke’s personal life to be, it is very important to remember that none of her testimony centered around the primarily intended use of hormonal contraception—that is to say, pregnancy prevention. Instead, Ms. Fluke’s testimony mainly centered around a friend who needed hormonal contraception as a method of controlling symptoms related to ovarian cysts. . . .

If the defense of the contraceptive mandate, and of contraception in general, focuses heavily on its use for treatment of other medical conditions, it risks creating a bifurcation between uses that are “legitimate” for the purposes of an employer mandate—such as treatment of cysts or menorrhagia—and the use that is not: namely, allowing a woman to control her own fertility. . . .

Examples of the other uses of contraception are very effective at showing the pathetic shortsightedness and tragic indifference of the right, but they cannot distract from the key prize: fighting for a woman’s right to self-determination.

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