Hobby Lobby Ruling Favors Religious Freedom
This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, saying the owners of the craft store should not have to violate their religious rights in order to provide contraceptives to employees.
According to the full text of the ruling,
Congress did not specify what types of preventative care must be covered [under the Affordable Care Act]; it authorized the Health Resources and Service Administration, a component of HHS, to decide.
Religious employers, such as churches, are exempt from this contraceptive mandate. HHS has also effectively exempted religious nonprofit organizations with religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services. Under this accommodation, the insurance issuer must exclude contraceptive coverage from the employer’s plan and provide plan participants with separate payments for contraceptive services without imposing any cost sharing requirements on the employer, its insurance plan, or its employee beneficiaries.
In these cases, the owners of three closely held for-profit corporations have sincere Christian beliefs that life begins at conception and that it would violate their religion to facilitate access to contraceptive drugs or devices that operate after that point.
In a lot of ways, us, as employees, have taken healthcare for granted. We automatically assume that our employers have to pay for whatever health problem we have or whatever preventative care we need. The reality? Healthcare is a benefit, not a requirement. Most people look for benefits when considering what job to take. It’s a perk of working with a particular company or organization. In a sense, having this added perk is a way of sealing the deal so employers will get the employees they truly want.
Of course, there were people who were upset about the decision. They, of course, are feminists and members of the left. While many of them claim to be tolerant, many flocked to Twitter to voice their disagreement with SCOTUS’ decision. Did I mention that most of those “disagreeing” tweets involved the F-bomb? Some went as far as saying Hobby Lobby should be burned down. Kind of extreme if you ask me.
Now that this decision has come down in favor of religious freedom and the pro-life movement, the left is using their ever-shocking favorite agenda, the “War on Women,” to cry foul play.
As a woman, it outrages me that this is even considered a possibility. The court ruled in favor of protecting someone’s religious beliefs and freedoms. Because that ruling allows employers to deny paying for someone’s birth control, suddenly this is another example of the (ludicrous) War on Women? No one is telling women they can’t use birth control. If they want to use it, then that is their personal choice.
Those who want companies, like Hobby Lobby, to pay for contraceptives say things like “Mind your own business” or “Birth Control: Not my bosses business.” You’re right. It’s not your bosses business. If you want to use contraceptives, then that’s a personal choice…until you demand that your employer pays for it. You can’t have it both ways.
Overall, this decision is monumental because employers are no longer being forced to pay for contraceptives when it goes against their religious beliefs. Exemptions have been made for churches and other organizations with religious tendencies. This is a protection of religious freedom and, in a lot of ways, a backlash to the overreaching Executive and Legislative Branch. This decision is a great example of how the separation of powers are supposed to work.
