Two Republican lawmakers compared Wednesday’s new rule allowing for easier access to birth control to both the 9/11 attacks and the Pearl Harbor bombing, NBC News reports.

“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,” Mike Kelly (R-PA) said at a press conference he held alongside Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY). “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.”

As part of the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies are now obligated to cover the cost of women’s contraceptive services, a requirement that touched off opposition by Republicans accusing president Barack Obama’s administration of assaulting religious freedom.

 

“It’s appalling. It’s offensive. It’s out of touch,” Obama said at a campaign stop in April. “And when it comes to what’s going on out there, you’re not going to close your eyes. Women across America aren’t closing their eyes. As long as I’m president, I won’t either,”

Wednesday, Buerkle refused to back down from her party’s earlier charges, calling the new mandate an assault on First Amendment rights.

“This is a right that every American should be outraged, outraged about what this administration and Secretary Sibelius has set forth here on August the 1st,” she said.

[Image via user brains the head on Flickr, Creative Commons licensed]