Those interested in the Hobby Lobby decision (U.S. Supreme Court Case Number 12-6294, Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., et al., Applicants v. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al.), announced 30 June 2014, should know of these:
- 1. Sterilization Surgery for Women,
2. Surgical Sterilization Implant for Women,
3. Sterilization Surgery for Men,
4. Implantable Rod,
5. IUD Copper,
6. IUD w/ Progestin,
7. Shot/Injection,
8. Oral Contraceptives (Combined Pill) “The Pill”,
9. Oral Contraceptives (Progestin only) “The MiniPill”,
10. Oral Contraceptives Extended/Continuous Use “The Pill”,
11. Patch,
12. Vaginal Contraceptive Ring,
13. Diaphragm with Spermicide,
14. Sponge with Spermicide,
15. Cervical Cap with Spermicide,
16. Male Condom,
17. Female Condom,
18. Spermicide Alone,
19. Plan B, Plan B One Step, Next Choice, and
20. Ella
which are the 20 FDA-approved birth control methods for women. Why? First, because Hobby Lobby always covered 16 of them in its health insurance plan for female employees…and still does. Next, because the methods to which Hobby Lobby objected:
- 5. IUD Copper,
6. IUD w/ Progestin,
19. Plan B, Plan B One Step, Next Choice, and
20. Ella
are abortifacients, or methods that do, or can, end a pregnancy rather than prevent it. Further, Plan B and Ella are “emergency contraception”, not intended for use as primary birth control, and IUDs are an unpopular method with minor to serious side effects.
Hobby Lobby’s owners opposed neither the safest, nor most popular, methods of birth control approved for women; they opposed ones that could kill an unborn child, because paying for that violated their religious beliefs.
In advocating for their religious liberty, Hobby Lobby’s owners:
• Kept costs low for female employees by continuing to pay for the safest and most popular birth control methods,
• Maintained basic health care for women by covering 80% of FDA-approved methods, with the others available or “make-able”, for little to no cost,
• Opposed no law (the mandate was not part of Obamacare, but an HHS-issued regulation, neither reviewed nor approved by Congress), and
• Stayed out of women’s health decisions. Hobby Lobby only cares about which contraception methods it funds, not which methods women choose.
Nevertheless, when Hobby Lobby prevailed, leading Liberals made fantastic claims:
- “It’s very troubling that a sales clerk at Hobby Lobby who need contraception, which is pretty expensive, is not going to get that service through her employer’s health care plan because her employer doesn’t think she should be using contraception” — Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State
“Apartheid in South Africa was justified on religious grounds. The Southern Baptist Convention justified slavery and later Jim Crow and segregation on religious grounds. We don’t accept that as a society anymore and we should not accept plain out gender bigotry. Withholding basic health care from women is bigotry plain and simple. We should not accept it.” — Terry O’Neill, President, National Organization for Women
“Today, the Supreme Court took an outrageous step against the rights of America’s women, setting a dangerous precedent that could permit for-profit corporations to pick and choose which laws to obey.” — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“Employers have no business intruding in the private health care decisions women make with their doctors. … If the Supreme Court will not protect women’s access to health care, then Democrats will.” — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Not surprisingly, the Obama White House joined in the fantasy chorus, saying the “…decision jeopardizes the health of women employed by these companies”, and others fanned the flames of a “War on Women” resulting from the decision. Simply put, these statements and assertions have no basis in fact.
The real problem is not that Liberals are lying; it is that the lies are so overt and blatant. The Court was clear that Affordable Care Act did not violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), but that HHS regulations, made law by no one, did, as stated on page 2 of the decision:
Consequently, Hobby Lobby was not picking which laws it would or would not follow. Then there was this from page 8:
Meaning the government had other ways to implement this policy. So why attempt to do so by attacking religious liberties, while hiding behind women’s skirts? And not only did the administration lose this decision, the defeat was quickly followed by stays of mandate granted to the Catholic broadcaster EWTN, Wheaton College, and 6 other Catholic Groups.
Again, why the overt attack on the rights of religious groups and others that are anti-abortion, when their positions do not oppose Obamacare? And why the wildly inaccurate statements later, as though the rights of anyone, apart from those with religious convictions, were ever at risk?
If one walks into a Hobby Lobby Store and asks a female employee, “How did this case impact your contraception care in your health plan?”, the answer will likely be, “It didn’t, and I never thought it would as long as my employers won.”
Yet the internet, and social media, are rife with screams of how women are wronged…..
Though 80% of FDA birth control methods were always available…
Though the four methods opposed were either the least popular among women, or not considered primary birth control for anyone…
Though no law was challenged, just a regulation with which the people’s representatives (Congress) had no involvement…
There is an agenda afoot, one unfriendly to freedoms which are the bedrock of liberty in the U.S. So, it can now be well said, regarding their pursuit of policy, that Liberals will lie blatantly. The only question is, “About what will they lie about next?”
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