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A Republican lawmaker likened the new birth control mandate to two of the most deadly attacks on American soil.
During a press conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly, a fierce opponent of abortion rights, compared the new roll-out of the Affordable Health Care Act that mandates insurance coverage of several women's health services to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 — days when thousands of Americans were killed.
"I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that's Pearl Harbor Day. The other is September 11th, and that's the day of the terrorist attack," Kelly said on Capitol Hill. "I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."
Beginning Wednesday, private insurers are required to provide birth control and health screenings to women at no additional cost.
Many Republicans lawmakers have objected to the mandate under the new law, saying it violates their religious beliefs and practices.
Kelly's comparison of the contraceptive mandate to the Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2011 attacks has received blow back from Democrats. New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, whose district includes Ground Zero, told Kelly to 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.
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The religious freedom of those women who agree with Mr. Kelly (on matters of preventive screening procedures and birth control, etc.) is not taken away from them by this mandate. They are free not to take advantage of it.
It's the religious freedom of the employers paying and providing the insurance if they self insured, or paying and supplying the coveage of conraceptives including steriliazation surgical procedures and the Abortion causing Plan B oral prescription medications, tenfortynine.
There is a very simple way to cure that "lack of religious freedom" if you are an employer. Don't employ anyone and do your work yourself.
Religious freedom also means that others are free from your religious beliefs too. This garbage about how women's health needs and choices persecutes religious fanatics is getting old. If anyone is suffering from oppression here, it's the women (and their possibly male partners) that suffer. Not some crazed religious nutball.
The fact of the matter is that this isn't about religion at all, it's about control. Using the 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks as a comparison is disgusting and demeaning.
That charge by our resident troll who also claims "experience working in the medical field" is a crock of crap. The "Plan B" birth control--which prevents pregnancy 89% of the time--is no more "abortion" than spermicidal douches or inter-uterine sponges, and they use the same hormones that are present in birth control pills.
Fuzzie has just downloaded another Teapublican talking oink® from his tinfoil hat and insulted our intelligence with this outright falsehood.
Google up that gibberish "tenfortynine" that he's implying is contained in the pill; it's non-existent...
Meanwhile, here's a medical explanation for how the "morning after pill" works. I'll stand for scientific review for this one from any credible MD, Fuzzy, and fair warning, my younger sister is one and teaches at a major university.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/02/06/146358069/the-morning-after-pill-how-it-works-and-who-uses-it
From Dr. Katherine White:
Plan B is a synthetic dose of the hormone progesterone. It's the same hormone that's in typical birth control pills — but at a higher dose. It works primarily by stopping the ovaries from releasing an egg. No egg, no pregnancy.
But if an egg has already been released, Plan B can still prevent the egg from getting fertilized. The dosage literally slows down the movement of the egg and, at the same time, it slows down the movement of the sperm, making it unlikely the two will meet, she says.
Now, here's where things get a bit controversial. If sperm has actually succeeded in fertilizing an egg, Plan B could possibly thin the lining of the uterus so the fertilized egg won't attach and grow. Scientists have no proof that actually happens, but in theory, it could.
White points out that that's still very different than what happens with the abortion pill — which causes a miscarriage.
The "abortion pill" is known as RU486... It is an entirely different drug, but the shrill histrionics in the wingnut crowd aren't interested in medical facts, only engaging in the sort of moralizing that dates back to Cotton Mather.
Last I looked using diaphragms and condoms in tandem make a pretty fool proof system against unwanted pregnancy or STDs....if you fail to plan ahead, you plan to fail, Leanne and Cab Driver. Apparently the Supreme Court has ruled that the sperm penetrating the egg is a live form now, Cab Driver. It will live in test tubes, and can be frozen and used at a later time...but it is a live form, you know. If you spilled a test tube filled with sperm enriched eggs into the toilet to be casually flushed away, you end and dispose of a live form, by definition, all your sophristries regardless. Same thing with the Plan B abortion causing prescriptions.
Oh snd the Supreme Court ruling? In vitro sperm fertizllized eggs stored are life forms with parental rights by both parties to the conception.
@K. Longey:
A cancerous tumor is a "life form", no more threatening than an unwanted pregnancy in many circumstances. But heaven forbid if you neglect to see the Doctor and do something about that!
Not that Grandpa understands biology any better than he does a "straw man" (given his argument on the "Drug War" clip; no opinion there, Fuzzie, beyond my "things need to change, and legalization ain't gonna happen" view, and I'm way more knowledgeable on the subject of rehabs than you are. Never been a patient in one, but I've worked in a couple under my own license as well as others), but apparently here's what he's referring to with the "Supreme Court has ruled" bit of red herringese...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-usa-socialsecurity-benefits-idUSBRE84K0SD20120521
That one is a bit too complicated for a double digit I.Q. What the court did recognize was that a fertilized embryo had the potential to be grown into a human being (can't be done with just a "test tube" however; it requires a womb), and that people's wishes on what can be done on their behalf are a factor in the law.
I too worked in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, both in direct counseling roles with the VA and Dept of the Army and in ancilliary professional roles; and tangentially with Non-profit employments also, with one of Massachusetts 11 Living Center outpatient programs (called clients in the Living Center foremat), Cab Driver, for physically and mentally handicapped individuals as you well know Cab Driver. You never held a professional position in your life, you never completed an educational program entitling and preparing you to hold a professional position, and your enpty braggadoccio is a synptom of your own struggles with alcoholism and the assorted grab bag of common personality disorders that are co-morbid to that alcoholism.
Have you noticed, on the eve of birth control being covered by insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Dick Cheney pops up to refer to Sarah Palin as a "mistake?" Hysterical! LOL
Have you noticed, on the eve of birth control being covered by insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Dick Cheney pops up to refer to Sarah Palin as a "mistake?" Hysterical! LOL
2bat Did Cheney say that Palin is a mistake? Did he mean a living mistake or what kind of a mistake? (Don't answer that it was a mistake as a vice presidential nomination.) He did not mean that. Cheney received pleasure saying that Palin was a mistake. What kind of satisfaction did he recieve?
I kinda think that giving viagra to prisoners would be more earth shaking to Mr. Kelly than mandating that women who want and need birth control would be able t afford it through their health insurance. Just think about it - male prisoners using Viagra - no women around - get the picture???
Mr. Kelly, ask you wife if she would still have sexual relations with you anytime you wanted if she was in a position to not be able to afford birth control? Ask any woman. Or, can you deal with the answers?
Err....Old blond broad, apparently you are by your moikor not really an interested party in this oral contraception and sterilizaion and abortion discussion? Just guessing!
But lets say that you were still of child bearing age, and couldn't really afford the bus ticket to the many free clinics providing free or fee for income capability oral contraceptives (or abortions and abortion causing drugs, for that matter) or the co-pays and deductions in your pharmacy coverage of your health insurance, than simply buy a diaphragm and an economy pack of condoms and have at it! I don't need to be taxed and have my copays, deductions, and premiums all increased so you and your partner can fornicate bareback as and when and wherever the spirit moves you!
It seems to me that in these post individuals will say what gives them the most pleasure regardless of how accurate it is. A person will say something that is completely false if it gives him/her pleasure. It does not matter how valid the comment of the commend. What each individual will post depends on how much pleasure he/she received.
All this does not matter because the Religious Fundamentalists believe that God determines how many are born and that he knows them before they are born. I have been told that God knew the serial killer before he created (caused to be born) the serial killer. I am not making this up. The reason for this they say is that God cannot choose radomness. He controlls everything. Now if that is true then God is not Omnipotent because if he is Omnipotent then he has all choices, but the fundamentalists tell me that he does not have all choices. Also He cannot choose randomness in what the weather will be because he controlls everything.
While the rest of you are arguing religious freedom vs. reproductive rights, with slim to zero chance of changing any minds—in my opinion all of you except Leanne #2.1 are missing an important point.
Rep. Kelly is saying that requiring insurance companies to provide hormonal contraceptives to those who wish them (which, BTW, have other uses in women's health besides birth control, including mitigating menstruation effects), just as insurance companies are required to provide erectile dysfunction therapy, is an ATROCITY equivalent to "days of infamy." Can comparisons to Hitler be far behind? Now not even Congress is immune from Godwin's rule.
BTW, your religious freedom ends at my skin.