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While Limbaugh's diagnosis drew well-wishes from some on both sides of the political divide, it also prompted a conversation about his past comments and views on topics such as immigration, women's rights and race.

Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, cited in a statement one such instance in 2012 when Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke, then a Georgetown University law student, a \"slut\" after she argued to Congress that birth control should be covered by her employer's health care plan.

He later apologized to Fluke and said his \"choice of words was not the best,\" although he had repeated the claim in various forms multiple times.

Hogue used the incident to describe what she called Limbaugh's \"lifetime of racism, homophobia and misogyny.\"

As many other critics who made statements or posted on social media noted, Limbaugh has made numerous derogatory comments about minority groups as well as offensive comments about AIDS and the LGBTQ community, suicide and many other sensitive topics and marginalized communities.

Limbaugh said on his talk show in 2013 that \"white guilt needs to end.\"

\"If any race of people should not have guilt about slavery, it's Caucasians. The white race has probably had fewer slaves and for a briefer period of time than any other in the history of the world,\" he said, identifying his statement as a \"history lesson.\"

\"PHOTO:
Mario Tama/Getty Images
PHOTO: Radio personality Rush Limbaugh reacts as First Lady Melania Trump gives him the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives on February 04, 2020 in Washington, DC.
>

He also described the NFL as \"a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons,\" effectively comparing black professional football players to gang members.

Limbaugh later said that the NFL comment he made in 2007 was \"not racial.\"

Of the LGBTQ community, Limbaugh blamed gay marriage for a decline in Christianity in 2015.

\"Many of these churches now perform homosexual marriage, they ordain gay pastors or ministers, and, in some cases, female and lesbian pastors and ministers, which you might think would cause some people to leave those churches,\" he said on his talk show.

Just a little more than a week before Limbaugh was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he suggested on his radio show banning Chinese citizens from entering the U.S. amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has prompted anti-Chinese racism around the world.

\"This is a serious thing that could be brewing out there, and just a question that I'm asking,\" Limbaugh said.

The director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases last week called for people to not discriminate against Chinese people.

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