are you fucking kidding me?

Criticizing President Barack Obama's health care reform law on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) likened the requirement that private insurance plans provide contraception coverage to two of the most devastating attacks on American soil.

"I know in your mind, you can think of the times America was attacked," he said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "One is Dec. 7, that's Pearl Harbor Day. The other is Sept. 11, and that's the day the terrorists attacked. I want you to remember Aug. 1, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."

Wednesday marked the first day private insurers must include birth control coverage in their plans without charging a co-pay, per requirements in the Affordable Care Act. The change will affect most women on private health plans, with some exceptions. More than a dozen Republican members of the House of Representatives, mostly freshmen, held a press conference to blast the law for what they said were violations of religious freedom.

"As this mandate goes into effect, Americans are going to be forced to act against the principles of their faith," said Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.). "This coercion by taxation that this president seems to like must stop and it must come to end now."

The conservative lawmakers' objections focus on the fact that employees and students with religiously affiliated groups will be able to have access to contraception coverage through their health care plans. A compromise offered by the Obama administration requires insurance companies to offer the coverage directly, so that the employers are removed from the transaction.

Still, the members threw one vitriolic jab after another at the mandate, calling it an attack on freedom and an assault on first amendment rights. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas), a Roman Catholic, characterized the law as "thinly veiled religious bigotry."

"Today is the day religious freedom died in America," Kelly added. His colleague Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "We're not the land of the free anymore, and we need to get that straight."

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) called the mandate "the largest assault we've seen on first amendment rights in the history of our country," and her colleague Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) called it "unprecedented government coercion in health care."

"This is not an issue of birth control, it's an issue of government control," Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) said.

"It's outrageous that this administration believes it's within their power to force people to violate their right of religion if it interferes with this administration's agenda," Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.) said. "It should disturb people of all faiths, or for that matter people of no faith at all, that President Obama has such a low opinion of the first amendment that he would trample on these rights."

In addition to the contraception mandate, health insurance plans must now cover additional screenings and services for women without passing on any of the cost to the patient.

"These include services that are essential to helping women stay healthy -- such as domestic violence screening, FDA-approved contraception, breastfeeding support and supplies, gestational diabetes screening, HPV testing, sexually transmitted infection counseling, and HIV screening," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a USA Today op-ed published Tuesday.

"That's on top of other potentially life-saving services such as cholesterol screenings and flu shots that many private plans and Medicare have already begun covering with no co-pay thanks to the law."

UPDATE: 3:00 p.m. -- Democrats hammered Kelly for his remarks.

"Equating women's health care and contraception with two of the darkest days in American history is not just wrong -- it's shameful," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, (D-N.Y.), who has spent the last decade dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. "Hopefully Rep. Kelly will realize his rhetoric doesn't match the situation. Safe, accessible contraception is a fundamental part of virtually every woman's health care at some point in their lives."

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), whose district incudes Ground Zero, said Kelly should apologize.

“For the thousands of Americans who lost their lives on these two horrible days, to the thousands more who put on a uniform to protect this country and ensure that the lives of those lost are not forgotten, to the thousands more who mourned the loss of a loved one or bore witness to those two tragic days in American history, Mike Kelly’s comments are beyond outrageous," Nadler said in a statement. "To drag the memories of those lost and those still grieving into the culture wars is unforgivable. And to equate those terrible attacks with the safe and legal availability of contraception for women -- ostensibly to score political points -- is stunning. The American people deserve an apology.”

I'm tired of these "but Jeesus! ...but but the bible! I'm being oppressed here!" assholes.

Also, these dicks only care about religious freedom for their fellow Christians.

Is anyone else tired of men speaking out against women's health care?

Originally posted by: DennisQ

Is anyone else tired of men speaking out against women's health care?

ILU Dennis.

Unfortunately, when I say this, I hear "but, but, it takes two to make a babby. WHAT ABOUT MY RIGHTS? MY SPERM!" ...Because men don't think about sex 24 hours a day or anything and basically sacrifice nothing when their woman becomes pregnant. I don't think most dudes even realize how much they're asking of their partner when they want to get pregnant. Broads still die during child birth but I guess they think "that won't happen to us."

Ahem.

Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.

-George Carlin

Originally posted by: John Barlow

Ahem.

Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.

-George Carlin

This is flaw free, speaks the truth and I love it every time I hear/read it.

Also, I pay for my health insurance. Who the hell are these dickbags to tell me that I'm cut off from something I fucking pay into because it hurts their sky dad's feawings.

matt will jump in here and say something to the contrary i'm sure, but the original intent of the founders' whole 'separation of church and state' doctrine was to keep religion out of legislation in every form, including crap like this. and like i've said on here before, there is no point in time that people -men and women- wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity to prevent unwanted pregnancies and plan their families according to their ability to care for them. people like this turd manipulate the ignorant and uneducated into really fucking their lives up, as well as the countless lives of 'unborn' whose parents aren't completely ready to care for them properly.

Sky dad feawings lol.

This is just ridiculous on so many levels. I have a feeling the people who died on 9/11 or attacked at pearl harbor will beg to differ.

I don't get how they think their religious rights over ride the rights of women to control their own bodies. Their religious rights to over ride our human rights.

Maybe they could.. I dunno... convince the 98% of Catholic women who use birth control at some point in their lives to not use birth control? That might be a bit more effective than bemoaning their supposed loss of religious freedom to... run a business and be treated like other businesses rather than like churches.. which are actually exempt from this mandate.

Originally posted by: Dianana

Originally posted by: John Barlow

Ahem.

Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.

-George Carlin

This is flaw free, speaks the truth and I love it every time I hear/read it.

Also, I pay for my health insurance. Who the hell are these dickbags to tell me that I'm cut off from something I fucking pay into because it hurts their sky dad's feawings.

religious right.

Originally posted by: Dianana

Originally posted by: John Barlow

Ahem.

Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.

-George Carlin

This is flaw free, speaks the truth and I love it every time I hear/read it.

Also, I pay for my health insurance. Who the hell are these dickbags to tell me that I'm cut off from something I fucking pay into because it hurts their sky dad's feawings.

had to re-post.

SKY DAD

is this real life?

its crack, it gets you really high

Well, Pearl Harbor was filled with dead seamen.