My previous column focused on questions raised by Sandra Fluke’s testimony before a Democratic House committee.
In this column, her testimony regarding entitlements will be analyzed.
In her testimony, Fluke cited another friend who has polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. This woman is fearful of being denied her medication “due to the barriers erected by Georgetown’s policy.” Fluke continues: “This is the message that not requiring contraception sends. A woman’s reproductive healthcare isn’t a necessity, isn’t a priority.”
But women’s health, and men’s too for that matter, is necessary and should be a priority. But the question is: To whom? Society? The school? And who should pay to discharge that responsibility?
Fluke also recounts the conversation she had with a rape victim.
This student assumed Georgetown’s insurance didn’t cover any aspect of a woman’s sexual healthcare, so she never went to a doctor for an examination or to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
Another student stated, “This policy communicates to female students that our school doesn’t understand our needs.”
A comment here. In this instance, the lack of a post-rape exam is due directly to an assumption on the victim’s part.
Schools can’t be held responsible for the erroneous conclusions or assumptions of their students.
And, just what “needs” doesn’t the school understand?
A portion of Georgetown’s resources is spent on crime prevention and campus security. A counseling center is also, no doubt, available. Just how far does a school, or a society have to go to “meet one’s needs?”
The rape victim has something in common with a male student who is attacked. Both experience violence perpetrated by an attacker. Both feel violated. Both may have to remain absent from classes. Both feel victimized and angry.
So, while it is true that the rape victim may experience unique feelings and torment unknown to the male victim, they both share much in common.
Fluke’s overdeveloped sense of entitlement is on full display in the very next set of remarks. “We expected women to be treated equally, to not have our school create untenable burdens that impede our academic success. We expected that our schools would live up to the Jesuit creed of cura personalis, to care for the whole person, by meeting all of our medical needs.”
Excuse me, “all of our medical needs?” This remark betrays an inflated sense of entitlement, the sense that something special is owed to a group because they are, well, “special.”
And, no organization meets “all the medical needs” of its members, unless one is in the military or imprisoned.
Fluke then attempts to refute the objection that, knowing that Catholic schools would not cover birth control medications, she should have gone to another school. She testifies, ”We refuse to pick between a quality education and our health, and we resent that, in the 21st century, anyone thinks that it’s acceptable to ask us to make that choice simply because we are women.”
One wonders at some level whether Fluke fancies herself a self-appointed representative of an allegedly suffering and oppressed class.
We walk a fine line here. On the one hand, rape and other forms of sexual aggression, or indeed aggression of any kind are intolerable. But, on the other hand, the remark that “the school doesn’t understand our needs” is made with a certain amount of whining.
Life is full of choices and surprises, some pleasant, some not. And, in Mick Jagger’s words, “You can’t always get what you want.”
Life is all about learning about limitations and scarcity. There are simply not enough resources to give everyone everything wanted or needed. But what is also needed is compassion and respect.
These are not purchased but freely given.
And nothing, nothing is “free.”
Someone pays. The only things up for discussion are who and how much?
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