By contributor Suzanne Struglinski
Social Justice advocate Sandra Fluke and Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.) addressed a houseful of supporters at a fundraiser for the Washington, DC affiliate, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington on Wednesday night. The affiliate covers the District, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland and 16 counties in Virginia. Dr. Laura Meyers, PPMW president, said they help 22,000 people each year and 10 percent of those patients are men.
Fluke, of course, is an American attorney and women’s rights activist who first rose to national prominence in February of 2012 when Republicans refused to allow her to testify to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the importance of requiring insurance plans to cover birth control.
Sandra Fluke (L)
Gaining awareness for reproductive health is just one area of concern for Fluke. More than a year after her congressional testimony on contraception coverage and surrounding controversy that threw her into the national spotlight, Fluke wants to harness her popularity for change on a variety of topics.
Fluke told PPMW supporters gathered in the home of board member Emily Lenzner that while the last year has been “exceptionally rough” in the fight for reproductive rights, especially for her, it has given her the opportunity to speak with people across the country.
She does not think of herself as a celebrity, but instead sees her popularity as “a completely different set of tools to do this work than what I expected I would have.” Now she has a team of people who help her keep up with social media and other requests and it feels like she has a lot more friends fighting for her causes.
“People feel like they know you,” she said of her experience throughout the last year.
This summer Fluke plans to focus on legislative advocacy in California looking at human trafficking bills as well as anti-poverty and reproductive health care efforts and on a federal level looking at details of the immigration reform debate.
As for her future, people are not shy about asking her if she will run for political office one day.
The Georgetown Law School alum, who passed the California bar exam last year, does not have a clear answer to the question yet.
“I am concerned about the fact we don’t have enough women and people of color and LGBT folks representing communities in Congress and in state legislatures and local offices as well,” Fluke said. “For me the focus is how can I most effectively create the social justice change I believe in, whether that’s from within the system, without the system, that’s what I am focused on.”
Meanwhile Esty, who Fluke campaigned for during the 2012 election, said that she “comes from a long line of feisty women” and she will never stop fighting for reproductive rights and access to health care.
Esty told the story of her 15-year-old daughter who challenged her to run for local office in 2005 that put her on the path toward her House seat.
“Mom, you always told us if you see a problem you can fix, fix it yourself, don’t wait for somebody else to fix it,” Esty said, adding that her daughter promised to be her campaign manager.
