Or something.

(CNS News) – Democratic Senators held a press conference on Tuesday to oppose a Republican-led amendment that would ensure conscience rights are protected under Obamacare, claiming the broadness of the proposal would turn the country back to the “medical dark ages” and keep women “barefoot and pregnant.”

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) led the press conference on Capitol Hill to denounce the amendment proposed by Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

The amendment, added to the federal highway reauthorization bill, would give employers the option of opting out of Obamacare’s Preventive Services Mandate for religious or moral reasons. That mandate says that all health insurance policies must cover sterilization and FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that induce abortion, free of charge.

Even if an individual or employer opposes such products or services for religious reasons they still would pay for their own health care coverage to a company that would have to provide those services to other people who wanted them. This regulation, from the Department of Health and Human Services, has been denounced by numerous religious groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and by at least 158 members of Congress.