Weekly Standard: Target Sells Pills For $9 A Month
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Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown University, testifies before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Feb. 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. Fluke has been the subject of controversial remarks by Rush Limbaugh on birth control. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption
Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown University, testifies before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Feb. 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. Fluke has been the subject of controversial remarks by Rush Limbaugh on birth control.
Alex Wong/Getty ImagesJohn McCormack is a staff writer for The Weekly Standard.
Nancy Pelosi held a congressional hearing on Monday with a single witness, Georgetown student Sandra Fluke, to testify about the need for Obamacare to mandate that religious institutions provide free contraception and abortifacients under their health insurance plans.
"Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy," Fluke testified regarding the Catholic university's policy of not covering birth control. "Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school."
But Fluke's testimony was very misleading. Birth control pills can be purchased for as low as $9 per month at a pharmacy near Georgetown's campus. According to an employee at the pharmacy in Washington, D.C.'s Target store, the pharmacy sells birth control pills--the generic versions of Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Ortho-Cyclen--for $9 per month. "That's the price without insurance," the Target employee said. Nine dollars is less than the price of two beers at a Georgetown bar.
It strains credulity to believe that a single Georgetown student can't afford $9 per month for birth control. But this is the justification the mandate's supporters give for forcing religious institutions to purchase insurance that violates their religious and moral convictions.