My fellow Americans, it is time for us to unite against the greatest threat on our soil since the September 11th terrorist attack.

Yes, birth control is now available without a copay.

If you don’t find that to be both utterly alarming and a threat to the very fabric of our nation, well, you haven’t been listening to Pennsylvania Representative Mike Kelly or his Republican compatriots.

Via Huffington Post:

“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 without charging a co-pay in their plans, 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.”

“Coercion” appears to be the word of the day for the Republican party. So, just to be clear, according to the GOP, the government “coercing” women into preventing pregnancy is bad. The government “coercing” women into giving birth is good.