Sandra Fluke

Sandra Kay Fluke (, born April 17, 1981) is an American lawyer, women's rights activist, and representative to the Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley.

She graduated from Pennsylvania's Tussey Mountain Junior/Senior High School in 1999.

In 2003, Fluke graduated from Cornell University's New York State College of Human Ecology with double major in Policy Analysis and Management and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies.

Fluke co-founded the New York Statewide Coalition for Fair Access to Family Court, whose advocacy led to legislation granting access to civil orders of protection for victims of intimate partner violence, including teenage and LGBTQ victims.

According to the website of Georgetown University, Fluke also participated in the Manhattan Borough President's Taskforce on Domestic Violence and "many other New York City and New York State coalitions that successfully fought for policy improvements effecting victims of domestic violence".

While in New York City, she worked for Sanctuary for Families, which aids victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

According to The Washington Post, Fluke was interested in contraceptive coverage when starting out at Georgetown University Law Center, researching the college's student health plans before enrolling to find that birth control was not included.

"I decided I was absolutely not willing to compromise the quality of my education in exchange for my health care," she said.

Fluke spent the following three years trying to persuade the administration of the Jesuit college to change its policy regarding student contraceptive coverage.

She said she had intended to use her testimony before Congress to talk about the effects of the lack of birth control coverage on students at Georgetown.

In 2011, Fluke was a recipient of the Women Lawyers of Los Angeles' Fran Kandel Public Interest Grant from Georgetown University Law Center, which supported her production of a video on how to take out a restraining order.

She also "represented numerous victims of domestic violence and human trafficking," according to Georgetown University.

She also served as president of the Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice student organization.

Marianne Schnall writes in What Will It Take to Make A Woman President? that Fluke "has been recognised for her extensive pro bono representation of victims of domestic violence and human trafficking and for her human-rights advocacy efforts in Kenya."

She first came to public attention when, in February 2012, Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee refused to allow her to testify to that committee on the importance of requiring insurance plans to cover birth control during a discussion on whether medical insurance should have a contraception mandate.

She later spoke to Democratic representatives.

Fluke supported President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 and was a featured speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

She ran for the California State Senate seat of Ted Lieu, who vacated the seat to run for the congressional seat being vacated by Henry Waxman.

Fluke lost to fellow Democrat Ben Allen.

Sandra Fluke is a native of Saxton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Richard B. Fluke II, a licensed pastor at a Methodist church, and Betty Kay (née Donaldson).

Fluke received her Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Georgetown Law in 2012.

She passed the California bar exam in July 2012 and was admitted to practice in the state on December 11, 2012.

While a law student at Georgetown, Fluke was invited by Democrats to speak at a February 2012 hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on new Administration rules concerning the Conscience Clause exceptions in healthcare associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Democrats requested that the committee add Sandra Fluke to the first panel, which was otherwise an all-male panel of clergy and theologians.

Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California, refused to allow Fluke to testify at the hearing, stating that Fluke lacked expertise, was not a member of the clergy, and her name was not submitted in time for the hearing.

Democratic members criticized the decision not to include Fluke because of the lack of female witnesses at the hearing, which was to examine contraception coverage.

A week later, on February 23, the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee convened a meeting to invite Fluke to speak.

Fluke offered testimony in support of President Obama's ruling that religiously affiliated institutions such as universities and hospitals should provide insurance plans that cover all costs for medicinal contraceptives.

During her testimony, Fluke stated, "We did not expect that women would be told in the national media that we should have gone to school elsewhere" to receive contraception coverage.

"We refuse to pick between a quality education and our health," she said.

Fluke further stated that 40% of Georgetown Law School's female population suffered financial hardship as a result of birth control not being covered by the student health insurance plan, and that the lack of contraception coverage in the university insurance plans would induce many low-income students to go without contraceptives.

She said that the women of Georgetown, other religious schools, and employees of religious institutions such as hospitals have endured "financial, emotional and medical burdens because of this lack of contraceptive coverage".

She mentioned friends affected by such policies, citing a friend with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Fluke stated this friend needed contraceptive hormones costing over $100 per month to treat the disease, and that while PcOS was "covered by Georgetown insurance", the insurance company repeatedly denied contraceptives because they suspected the purpose of the medication was for contraceptive uses.

Fluke's testimony on February 23 did not refer to her own sex life or use of contraceptives.

She spoke instead about the experiences of fellow law students; according to The Washington Post, these included "Students who pay as much as $1,000 a year out-of-pocket for a birth-control prescription, a married woman who stopped taking the pill because she couldn't afford it, and a friend who needed the prescription for a medical condition unrelated to pregnancy but gave up battling to get it".

On February 29, 2012, radio host Rush Limbaugh referred to Fluke's testimony to House Democrats on his show, The Rush Limbaugh Show, calling Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute".

Limbaugh stated:

"[Fluke] essentially says that she must be paid to have sex—what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex."

Fluke responded by saying that she was "stunned" and "outraged" by Limbaugh's remarks, calling them "an attempt to silence me, to silence all of us from speaking about the healthcare we need".