Rush Limbaugh: I'll Buy Georgetown Women 'As Much Aspirin To Put Between Their Knees As They Want'

ABC News’ Alexa Keyes reports:

The social issues debate re-ignited on Capitol Hill today when senators killed a proposal to throw out President Obama’s contraception mandate. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh was thrust into the center of the debate after he called the woman who was denied the right to speak on the controversial all-male conception panel at a hearing last month a “slut” on his show Wednesday. The issue heated up more today when Limbaugh took his comments even further.

The conservative radio host’s remarks sparked an angry backlash from House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. But instead of heeding their requests for an apology, Limbaugh doubled down against what he called the “conniption fit” of  the House Democrats.

Echoing Foster Friess, the single largest donor to the pro- Rick Santorum’s super PAC, Limbaugh said that he would “happily buy [Fluke] all the aspirin she wants.”

Limbaugh was referencing the comment Friess made in February when he said the “gals” in “his day” put aspirin between their legs in lieu of contraception. Limbaugh then expanded his offer to include the university’s entire female student body.

“I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want,” he said.

Sandra Fluke, a third-year student at Georgetown University Law School, was barred from testifying by Rep. Darrell Issa, the committee chair at the faith-based hearing on Capitol Hill, because he deemed her unqualified.  Issa said the panel was supposed to focus on religious freedom and Fluke is not a member of any clergy.

She eventually spoke to a Democratic hearing spearheaded by Pelosi on Feb. 23, where she talked about the need for birth control coverage. Fluke spoke of one friend in particular who needed contraception to prevent ovarian cysts.

Rush Limbaugh, though, had a different take on Fluke’s testimony. On his show Wednesday, he suggested that the reason Fluke cannot afford birth control  is because she is having too much sex.

“Can you imagine if you’re her parents how proud of Sandra Fluke you would be?” he said. “Your daughter…testifies she’s having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the pope.”

Fluke testified that without insurance coverage, contraception can cost a woman as much as $3,000 during law school.

“Three thousand dollars for birth control in three years? That’s a thousand dollars a year of sex — and, she wants us to pay for it,” Limbaugh said, adding that high school boys applying to college should consider Georgetown. “They’re admitting before congressional committee that they’re having so much sex they can’t afford the birth control pills!”

The conservative radio host continued: “What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and 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. What does that make us? We’re the pimps.”

Limbaugh shied away from his word choice towards the end of his show, saying “So, she’s not a slut. She’s round-heeled. I take it back.” Round-heeled, though, is a euphemism for the same thing, an old-fashioned term for a “promiscuous woman.”

On today’s show, Limbaugh turned up the heat and suggested that women who use insurance-covered birth control should post sex tapes online: “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch,” he said.

Limbaugh’s comments today came on the same day of the rejection of the “Blunt Amendment,” which would have repealed Obama’s controversial contraception rule.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee drafted a petition today to ask Republican leaders to denounce Limbaugh’s “repulsive attacks on women,” DCCC spokesman Jesse Ferguson said.

“When it comes to Limbaugh,” Ferguson said, “expect the unexpected. But what should be expected is for Republican leaders to stand up and say they don’t want him to defend them anymore.”

More than 75 Democratic House Members signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday urging him to condemn Limbaugh’s remarks. Read the DCCC’s letter to Speaker Boehner here. And here is the list of signatures the petition has received so far.

UPDATE 5:11 p.m.: For her part, Fluke released a statement thanking those who went to bat on her behalf and condemning the remarks, though she did not call out anyone by name.

“We are fortunate to live in a democracy where everyone is entitled to their own opinions regarding legitimate policy differences. Unfortunately, numerous commentators have gone far beyond the acceptable bounds of civil discourse,” Fluke wrote. ”No woman deserves to be disrespected in this manner. This language is an attack on all women, and has been used throughout history to silence our voices. The millions of American women who have and will continue to speak out in support of women’s health care and access to contraception prove that we will not be silenced.”