Sandra Fluke

MsEJ

Heard your speech on Reproductive Justice at the Tucson AZ List luncheon.  Inspirational!  And loved your quip about what motivated you to study harder for the  bar exam!  I’m sure you’ll pass with flying colors and enjoy a long and productive career doing important work.  Many thanks for motivating us to support and work for RJ!

sandamy27 asked: some of what they say is not to my liking - the point is that there are many Americans like them - conservative. And, my understanding is that these conservatives want the same thing that liberals want. Growth and prosperity for all Americans. If W&J listeners could hear your explanation for the purpose of your interest in birth control programs perhaps they would support you too. Every drop in the bucket helps the bucket to overflow. BTW, Gloria Allred was on their show before the election.

Thanks for reaching out and suggesting it!  I’ve passed it along to the folks who help me with media.  Thanks for coming out to support Planned Parenthood as well!

tur-ducken asked: I'm talking about you in my body autonomy paper! Thank you for being a good role model and a great person in general! You're an inspiration :)

Thanks, Sarah.  Glad you’re grappling with the topic!

bobox31 asked: I admire your steadfast commitment to your message throughout this tumultuous, and yet again shameful, political campaign season. In the ongoing fight for individual rights against an ebbing tide of selfishness and shrinking freedoms, I believe your efforts this year will be well remembered. Over the years I have collected the autographs of many freedom fighters (Freedom Riders, ERA, etc.) and I would love to add yours to my collectionl. Is there somewhere I can send a photo card and SASE?

Happy to.  You can mail it to:

Sandra Fluke, c/o Claudia Vargas, Feminist Majority Foundation, 433 S. Beverly Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90212 

A Clarification

It’s come to my attention that in some recent media coverage, I’ve been referred to as an attorney. Although I have received my JD and (anxiously) await the results of the Bar exam I took earlier this summer, I cannot yet call myself an attorney. I hope to be able to in the coming months, but to do so now would be premature.

My remarks from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte

Some of you may remember that earlier this year, Republicans shut me out of a hearing on contraception. In fact, on that panel, they didn’t hear from a single woman, even though they were debating an issue that affects nearly every woman.

Because it happened in Congress, people noticed. But it happens all the time. Many women are shut out and silenced. So while I’m honored to be standing at this podium, it easily could have been any one of you. I’m here because I spoke out, and this November, each of us must do the same.

During this campaign, we’ve heard about the two profoundly different futures that could await women. 

And how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past. Warnings of that future are not distractions.  They’re not imagined. That future could be real.

In that America:

Your new president could be a man who stands by when public figures try to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs.

Who won’t stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party.

It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who cosponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms.

An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need.

An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it. 

In which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again.

In which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve help, and which don’t. 

We know what this America would look like. In a few short months, it’s the America we could be. But it’s not the America we should be. It’s not who we are.

We’ve also seen another future we could choose.

First of all, we’d have the right to choose.

It’s an America in which no one can charge us more than men for the exact same health insurance.

In which no one can deny us affordable access to the cancer screenings that could save our lives.

In which we get to decide when to start our families. 

An America in which our president – when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked – thinks of his daughters – not his delegates or donors – and stands with all women.

And strangers come together, reach out and lift her up because they believe in her dignity as a person. And then, instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here – and give me a microphone – to amplify our voice.

That’s the difference.

Over the last six months, I’ve seen what these two futures look like. And six months from now, we’ll all be living in one, or the other. But only one.

A country where our president either has our back – or turns his back. A country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward – or one that forces our generation to re-fight the battles they already won. A country where we mean it when we talk about personal freedom – or one where that freedom doesn’t apply to our bodies and our voices. 

We talk often about choice. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to choose.