I appreciate the article and its insistence that the word slut should be eliminated from our vocabularies. The following is in response to the comment threads. I'm a married woman who takes birth control. I'm on a generic medication WITH insurance coverage, and it costs $15 a month. Most pharmacies that offer low-cost generic prices are for particular drugs -- mostly antibiotics. My medication is NOT cheaper elsewhere -- I've checked. Without insurance, the generic would cost upwards of $50. I'm not on a specialty drug, just the run-of-the-mill pill. I attended a Baptist school where most of the girls I knew were evangelical Christians who were NOT sexually active. More than 50% were on birth control for hormone regulation. Docs use it for everything from acne control (which has hormonal causes) to terrible PMS symptoms to cyst treatment and a variety of other hormone-based health issues. There may be other possible medical solutions, but if a woman and doc consider hormonal pills the best treatment, that is between them. Women of child-bearing age pay a higher insurance premium. I currently pay a higher premium even though my insurance policy does NOT cover pregnancy and child birth. My husband and I are both fulltime graduate students and cannot afford the policy that actually covers pregnancy. What are women paying for with their higher premiums if NOT to have their unique health needs met? Do women use birth control to prevent pregnancy in sexual relationships before they are married? Sure. While that doesn't fit our moral code, it isn't illegal. Single women of childbearing age still pay higher insurance premiums. Their insurance should provide the treatment the women (or their employers) are already paying for.

This seems like misdirection for whatever the real agenda is. I can't imagine anybody having difficulty affording birth control prescribed for any reason unless she is so destitute she's living in a cardboard box. Like a poster above said, with a prescription but without insurance coverage, generic brand birth control sells at Target for $9/mo. I believe generics sell at Wal-mart for $4. And there are health clinics that cater to low-income people. Not to mention Planned Parenthood, which I'm told hands out contraception for free.

I've read every single comment here, and am saddened that so many people are more outraged at where their tax dollars are going* than at the fact that a woman - a woman made in the image of God - was called a slut. That is the real outrage in this episode, and reminds me of Jesus' command in Matthew 5:22 - But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. To label someone Raca was a moral judgment. Jesus said not to do that. To call someone a slut is another moral judgment. I think it wisest not to do that either. It denigrates God's creation embodied in that woman and, by extension, in every woman and every man when we feel ourselves to be in a position to pass such judgment. And it hurts the one judging too, sometimes incalculably. Blessings on all, Tim *I'm not advocating sloppy stewardship of our tax dollars but rather right priorities of people over money, even people we heartily disagree with.

Anna, I still don't see why I should pay for YOUR birth control pills, which obama dictated that they should be given away for FREE. Obviously they have a cost that will be paid for by taxpayers. Who does he think he is doing things like firing the presidents of GM and other companies and getting involved in private industry? The Chevy Volt has turned out to be a terrible nightmare with a huge cost, so maybe he'll fire himself on that one. He'll be taking over 1/6 of the economy with his "health care plan" that leaves him and his family out of it, as well as members of Congress, and union members. Cronyism. If it's good enough for us, it's good for them also. Pelosi told members of Congress that they had to pass it so they could find out what is in it. This is insane. People who are 70 and over will not receive any type of surgery for strokes, in other words, it's hoped that they will die earlier. He'll be dictating how much physicians and everyone else in the heath care fields can earn. Yet he did absolutely no changes where the lawyers are involved, such as tort reform. I would like for YOU to pay for MY car expenses so that I can go to work. Does that sound fair to you? Where will it all end? Get the government out of private industry and put it back in charge of protecting us, the one major important thing that obama is really failing. He is unilaterally destroying 85% of our nuclear missiles and telling the Russians our nuclear secrets as well. In the meantime, Russia, China, North Korea, and others are building up at a pace faster than during the Cold War. If anyone wants to protest anything, he just signed into law a bill that makes it illegal to protest anywhere where there may be secret service men, such as the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, and anywhere where the prez or any congressmen or women are giving speeches. The next step that will come pretty quickly will take away your right to protest. If people don't realize that they're dealing with a socialist dictator quickly, it will be too late. Look up NDAA.

Uh, Kathy, we aren't just talking about unmarried women having sex. We are also talking about married women who choose to go on birth control and women who are on birth control for health reasons unrelated to wanting to prevent pregnancy. And regardless of where you stand on the debate, using the term slut is still not okay. It is a term that has been used exclusively against women (there is no equivalent male term) to judge them and force them to conform to gender norms. It is often used by men against women who simply say no to them. It is also often used against women who stray outside society's gender norms, even if these women are actually virgins.

It doesn't matter what century you live in, it's still a sin called fornication. Why should my money be spent so someone else can sleep around when God says it's a sin? Let her pay for her own sinful behavior.

Maybe this debate will help people who are thinking about working for these institutions think twice, if employers have such a need to impose their values on their employees who aren't even Catholic. I never would have thought as a married Protestant woman in the 21st century I would hear debates about women using birth control being called sluts. It makes me really embarrassed to call myself a Christian sometimes.

Has anyone who is disgusted by Ms. Fluke's alleged promiscuity reached out to her relationally in the spirit of love the sinner, hate the sin? Not that it would work, but one never knows what response a true, loving outreach would bring.

Even non-married, sexually active women are rarely promiscious. Promiscious women exist, but most women still get hurt emotionally when they feel they have been used sexually or if they have sex outside of a relationship and love and so they avoid promiscuity. As the anonymous, non-sexually active woman who still uses birth control for health reasons, sadly, I'm becoming increasingly wary of my own brothers and sisters. I don't want to be hurt emotionally by spending too much time around this. Freely using the word promiscious without knowing any of these women personally is bad enough.

It's odd to me that calling someone a slut is far more offensive than the target demanding that I pay for her birth control so that she can be a slut. Very strange! Fluke was a private citizen until she decided to testify before Congress for an hour. If she wanted her privacy, she should not have testified. Fluke demanded that Christians pay for her to have sex whenever and with whomever she wanted. That's disgusting! Slut is much to kind a word for it.