Sandra Fluke

[Fluke] essentially says that she must be paid to have sex—what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.

In 2013, Californian Susan MacMillan Emry co-organized a public relations campaign called Rock the Slut Vote in response to Limbaugh's remarks. The campaign encourages voting for progressive politicians.

She first came to public attention when, in February 2012, Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee refused to allow her to testify to that committee on the importance of requiring insurance plans to cover birth control during a discussion on whether medical insurance should have a contraception mandate. She later spoke to Democratic representatives.

Fluke supported President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 and was a featured speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. She ran for the California State Senate seat of Ted Lieu, who vacated the seat to run for the Congressional seat being vacated by Henry Waxman, but lost to fellow Democrat Ben Allen.

In April 2012, Fluke became engaged to Adam Mutterperl. According to Fluke's state senate campaign website, "Sandra and her husband, Adam, live in West Hollywood with their dog, Mr. President."

Fluke received her Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Georgetown Law in 2012. She passed the California bar exam in July 2012, and was admitted to practice in the state on December 11, 2012.

While a law student at Georgetown, Fluke was invited by Democrats to speak at a February 2012 hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on new Administration rules concerning the Conscience Clause exceptions in healthcare associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Democrats requested that the committee add Sandra Fluke to the first panel, which was otherwise an all-male panel of clergy and theologians. Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California, refused to allow Fluke to testify at the hearing, stating that Fluke lacked expertise, was not a member of the clergy, and her name was not submitted in time for the hearing. Democratic members criticized the decision not to include Fluke because of the lack of female witnesses at the hearing, which was to examine contraception coverage.

On February 29, 2012, radio host Rush Limbaugh referred to Fluke's testimony to House Democrats on his show, The Rush Limbaugh Show, calling Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute". Limbaugh stated:

In a June 2012 op-ed for CNN, Fluke described what she called "President Barack Obama and former [Governor] Mitt Romney's vastly different values and visions", specifically mentioning Obama's support of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, increasing the government's investment of Pell Grant scholarships, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Fluke described Obama as "a president who has consistently shown he will defend [women's] rights while working to ensure that all women and men have all the protections and opportunities they need to pursue economic success". Fluke later introduced President Obama at an August 2012 campaign rally in Denver and spoke in support of the president at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, describing the Republican Party's platform as "an offensive, obsolete relic of our past". The Los Angeles Times described Fluke as "a symbolic presence in a convention that has been dominated by Democrats reaching out for the votes of women". Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois responded to the speech by saying that Fluke was acting "entitled" and told her to "get a job"; Fluke wrote in response that Walsh "disparage[d] my generation", and questioned why many elected officials' answer to struggling Americans was "cutting their safety net".

In 2011, Fluke was a recipient of the Women Lawyers of Los Angeles' Fran Kandel Public Interest Grant from Georgetown University Law Center, which supported her production of a video on how to take out a restraining order. She also "represented numerous victims of domestic violence and human trafficking," according to Georgetown University. She also served as president of the Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice student organization. Marianne Schnall writes in What Will It Take to Make A Woman President? that Fluke "has been recognised for her extensive pro bono representation of victims of domestic violence and human trafficking and for her human-rights advocacy efforts in Kenya."

Two years after moving to West Hollywood, Fluke announced she was running for California State Senate in the new 26th district created by the 2011 redistricting. The new district is roughly equivalent to the pre-redistricting 28th district represented by Ted Lieu. In the June 3 primary, she came in second with 19.5% of the vote. In the November 4th elections she faced Democrat Ben Allen, who had won the primary with 22% of the vote, and she was defeated 61% to 39%.

Sandra Fluke is a native of Saxton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Richard B. Fluke II, a licensed pastor at a Methodist church, and Betty Kay (née Donaldson). She graduated from Pennsylvania's Tussey Mountain Junior/Senior High School in 1999. In 2003, Fluke graduated from New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell University with double major in policy analysis and management and feminist, gender & sexuality studies. She has been identified as Protestant.

Sandra Kay Fluke (/f l ʊ k / , born April 17, 1981) is an American lawyer and women's rights activist.