Sandra Fluke Fallout: Patricia Heaton Returns to Twitter, Apologizes for Bashing Georgetown Student

After backlash from her tweets slamming a college law student advocating insurance coverage for contraception, actress briefly cancels, then reactivates her Twitter account

By Josh Grossberg Mar 05, 2012 8:01 PMTags
Patricia Heaton, TwitterPhil Han/ZUMA Press.com

Patricia Heaton is back on Twitter, tail firmly between her legs.

After sparking outrage for Rush Limbaugh-esque tweets insulting Sandra Fluke, and deleting her entire Twitter account in the ensuing backlash, the actress has returned.

"I apologized to Ms Fluke last week. I may not agree with her views but I didn't treat her with respect and I'm sorry. I was wrong. Mea Culpa," Heaton tweeted moments ago.

No response so far from Fluke.

Last week, Heaton joined Limbaugh and other right-wingers in denouncing Fluke, a Georgetown University law student and reproductive rights advocate who testified before Democratic members of Congress on why contraception should be covered by insurance companies.

Heaton began the bullying treatment in a post calling out her Twitter followers, aka "Tweatons."

"If every Tweaton sent Georgetown Gal one condom, her parents wouldn't have to cancel basic cable, & she would never reproduce—sound good?" Heaton posted.

Even though Limbaugh wound up backtracking from his his loud-mouthed insults (albeit after massive advertiser withdraw from his syndicated radio show), the erstwhile Everybody Loves Raymond star initially refused to back down.

Instead she simply pulled the plug on the offending tweets, but not before several sites got screen grabs to document the ugliness for all time. Here's a small sampling of Heaton's handiwork:

"Hey GTown Gal: How about only having sex on Wednesday? (Hump day!)," Heaton wrote in a tweet last Thursday.

The 54-year-old thesp later added this gem: "Hey G-Town Gal: turn your underwear inside out! Then u only have to do laundry every 2 weeks—saves on detergent & trips to Laundromat!"

And this: "If your parents have to pay for your birth control, maybe they should get a say in who u sleep with. Instant birth control."

Left-leaning website Crooks and Liars subsequently labeled Heaton a "Dittohead Slut Shamer" for the kindergartenesque behavior while another blogger, Angry Black Lady, called her a "coward" for failing to own up to her offensiveness.

A rep for Heaton could not be reached for comment.

(Originally published March 5, 2012, at 7:30 a.m. PT)