Ted Yoho: “I thank the gentleman from Texas, along with the gentlewoman from Missouri, for starting this discussion. Mr. Speaker, I…”

“I thank the gentleman from Texas, along with the gentlewoman from Missouri, for starting this discussion. Mr. Speaker, I rise today--or tonight--not only in firm opposition to the Affordable Care Act, but also to the Affordable Care Act's religious mandate. I would like to take you back to March of 2009, when a one-sided government passed a bill, and they said that we have to pass it to see what is in it, we have to pass it to see how it is going to work. I think what we are seeing today is evidence of that, and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. In accordance to this terrible law, HHS issued rules that health care plans must include all FDA-approved contraceptives, including drugs that can terminate a human embryo and sterilization services. The HHS mandate only contains an exemption for churches, but not for religious nonprofits or businesses run by people of faith who are morally opposed to such practices. The HHS mandate puts jobs and the health care of millions of Americans at risk. It forces people who stand up for their conscience to choose between paying crippling fines and dropping health care coverage altogether for their employees, as you have seen expressed over and over again tonight; yet it excludes some people of certain faiths, the Muslim faith or the Amish faith, because participating in group health insurance is a form of gambling and that is against their religious beliefs, but yet it won't exclude people who are morally opposed against this.…”