Rima Fakih, the first Arab-American Miss USA, won last night after saying birth control should be covered by insurance. Asked how she felt about winning, she said, “Ask me after I’ve had a pizza.”
Fakih was born in Lebanon, raised mostly in New York, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan. Her parents live in Dearborn, Michigan, which has the highest percentage of Arab-Americans in the United States, at 30 percent.
As an immigrant herself from a demographic subject to its own kind of racial profiling, she may have gotten lucky that someone else got asked about the Arizona immigration law. Instead, Fakih got a question about birth control, of which insurance coverage is determined by a complex set of state laws and private policies.
During the interview portion, Fakih was asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should because it’s costly.
“I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it’s a controlled substance,” Fakih said.
Fakih also narrowly escaped tripping on the train of her white dress.
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