Santorum’s billionaire backer Foster Friess apologizes for odd contraception comment

Rick Santorum's billionaire backer Foster Friess wrote on his blog Friday morning that he "deeply" apologizes to anyone who thought he was telling women to use aspirin instead of birth control in a Thursday segment on MSNBC. Meanwhile, Santorum was on the defensive Friday, calling his supporter's joke "stupid."

"This contraception thing, my gosh it's so inexpensive. Back in my day they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives, the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly," Friess said Thursday, while defending Rick Santorum's personal objections to contraception. Friess wrote on his blog that this is an "old joke" from 50 years ago before birth control pills were available. The joke refers to abstaining from sex as contraception.

"To those who thought I was callously encouraging that as a prescription for today, I kindly ask your forgiveness," he wrote.

''This is someone who is a supporter of mine, and I'm not responsible for every comment a supporter of mine makes," Santorum said on CBS's "This Morning" on Friday. (Friess has donated $300,000 to a super PAC backing Santorum.) "It was a bad joke, it was a stupid joke, it's not reflective of me or my record on this issue." Santorum added that he's voted for federal funding of contraception. Though in October, he said that he personally thinks birth control is "not ok" because it provides a "license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be."

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