Gohmert: Contraception mandate is like banning communion

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Wednesday railed against the Obama administration's contraception mandate and said the United States could not succeed without God.

He said the new Health & Human Services Department rule -- which requires most employers to provide free birth control coverage in their health insurance policies -- was like prohibiting Jews from worshiping on the Sabbath or banning communion. Some Catholics oppose the new rule, and the HHS has vowed to make "common-sense accommodations for values like religious liberty."

But Gohmert said that wasn't enough.

"'Values' nothing," he said. "It is a constitutional right that this administration is trotting on, and trampling, and stomping on. And if it will take this right, what's next?"

Gohmert added that founding father Ben Franklin "believed in the power of prayer," noting that he appealed for a prayer at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

"The God of which Ben Franklin spoke, without whom we will succeed in our political building no better than the builders of Babel, is now being told by this administration that they'll accommodate as best they can, but make no mistake they're trampling on the rights that Priests for Life have been preaching about for 20 years."

Watch video, via MoxNews.com, below:

[Image via Mark Taylor, Creative Commons licensed]