Maddow: Limbaugh, Republicans don't know what birth control is or how it works

On Friday night's The Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel examined the recent controversy swirling around Rush Limbaugh and his vicious personal attacks on Georgetown University Law student Sandra Fluke.

Fluke was the witness called by Democrats to testify before Rep. Darryl Issa's Congressional committee on insurance coverage for women's contraceptive medication. Issa (R-CA) refused to let Fluke testify at the hearing, claiming she wasn't qualified.

Limbaugh has taken it upon himself to punish Fluke for coming forward, hurling epithets at her during his radio show like "slut" and "prostitute," claiming that the reason Fluke came to testify before the committee was to declare that she's having "so much sex" that she can't afford her birth control pills.

Rachel points out that outrage and insults are Limbaugh's bread and butter. He "literally banks on" his remarks being offensive enough that they will attract attention and cause controversy.

However, it also demonstrates a fairly formidable lack of understanding on Limbaugh's part about how women's oral contraception works. Apparently, the right-wing radio entertainer believes that the more often a woman has sex, the more birth control pills she has to take. According to Maddow, perhaps the ridiculous amount of venom that Limbaugh spews on the subject mainly stems from the fact that it's something he just doesn't comprehend.

She also points out that Mitt Romney is apparently stricken with the same lack of understanding. He claims that he supports the notion of fetal personhood, but also believes that women should have access to contraceptives. "Life begins at conception," he insists, in spite of the fact that the way most birth control works is not by blocking fertilization, but by blocking the uterine implantation of a fertilized egg.

Watch the video, embedded via MSNBC, below:

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