Anyone following the latest on Obama’s healthcare mandate will surely have heard of Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, who told House Democrats why she supports the contraceptive mandate. The best commentary I’ve heard on the issue can be found at Reason:

(Reason) Fluke’s testimony prompted a sexist tirade from Rush Limbaugh that was not only gratuitously offensive but failed to zero in on the glaring weaknesses in her case for the mandate. Her argument boils down to this: Here is something we want but cannot afford; therefore someone else should be forced to pay for it. We’ve already discussed the fallacy behind the second part of that argument. What about the first part?

Fluke says birth control “can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,” which translates into $1,000 a year, or about $83 a month. Even that estimate is suspiciously high. Here is a website that offers a month’s worth of birth control pills for less than $20. According to Planned Parenthood, birth control pills “cost about $15–$50 each month.” (Condoms and diaphragms are even cheaper.) Even if you include the cost of a doctor’s visit to get a prescription, Fluke’s figure is inflated. Are Georgetown Law students really struggling to pay $1 for a condom or buy a diaphragm with an amortized cost (including spermicidal jelly) of $2 or $3 a month? If so, abstinence is always an option.

In short, Fluke chose to attend a Jesuit school and now objects because she has to pay out of pocket for birth control, a trivial expense compared to the cost of tuition, books, food, rent, transportation or even the copayments for other medical services. How can this inconvenience possibly justify compelling someone else to pay for her contraceptives, especially when they have religious objections to doing so?