Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Thursday said that Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke was wrong to want contraception to be covered by her health insurance, referring to the medication as "lifestyle help."
In a statement on his website over the weekend, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said he “sincerely” apologized to Fluke, who he had called a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified before Congress about the need for contraception coverage at colleges and universities, even if they are owned by religious institutions.
Appearing on ABC's The View on Thursday, O'Reilly agreed that Limbaugh's choice of words had been "inappropriate."
"The bigger issue is the entitlement state versus Ms. Fluke opinion that she is owed a certain amount of lifestyle help," O'Reilly remarked.
Hosts Barbara Walters and Joy Behar pointed out that drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, like Viagra and Levitra, were covered by most insurance companies.
"The Centers for Disease Control basically categories things, and they say this is a malady, this is a medical condition and this isn't," O'Reilly explained. "And so Viagra comes under the government's guidelines for medical condition. Contraception doesn't. So look, I don't care. Doesn't matter to me."
"It's in motion now that if you need birth control and you go to a federal clinic, you get it," he continued. "So there really isn't any problem, you can get it. And then if you don't want to drive down to the clinic, you can go to Walmart or you can go to Target and get it for $9 a month. So, to insert this into a giant Obamacare bill seems to be unnecessary to me."
"So do you consider a vasectomy a health issue then?" Behar asked. "Because that's covered."
"I don't consider anything anything," O'Reilly grumbled. "I'm not a doctor. I don't know."
Watch this video from ABC's The View, broadcast March. 8, 2012.
(H/T: The Huffington Post)
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