Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) accused Republicans of hypocrisy for pairing protests against a health care mandate with demands for increasingly invasive restrictions on women’s health.
“The only health care mandate they can embrace are transvaginal probes for women,” O’Malley said Friday during a press call.
O’Malley was referring to bills like one proposed in Virginia that would have required the procedure for women seeking an abortion, part of a broader effort by pro-life groups to shame patients who wish to end their pregnancy. Other Republican-led states, like Pennsylvania and Alabama, have pushed for similar measures.
The governor also dismissed criticism of the Affordable Care Act from Republicans claiming that the Supreme Court’s ruling that the penalty for not having health insurance was actually a tax, noting Mitt Romney had used the same language in his own legislation in Massachusetts.
“It was a penalty provision that was also in Romneycare,” he said. “Or, as Gov. [Bobby] Jindal just called it, ‘Obamneycare.’”
Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, accidentally referred to “Obamneycare” in a call with reporters earlier that morning before catching himself. The term was used by Republican critics of Romney during the GOP primaries, many of whom attacked Romney for enacting a state health care law with a similar structure to the ACA, including a mandate.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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