The “Religious Exemption” A Clear and Present Danger
The current U.S. Supreme Court case Sebelius v Hobby Lobby is simply the most recent ploy by the religious right to superimpose their “family values” on the rest of us. According to their lawyers, Hobby Lobby is a “Mom and Pop craft supply business” owned and operated by “devout Christians” whose only concern is “saving the lives of the unborn.” More specifically, David and Barbara Green, Hobby Lobby’s owners, object to the Affordable Care Act’s regulation that forces a company to provide its female employees with health insurance that provides “morning after” pills and intrauterine devices, even if doing so would violate the strong religious beliefs of the family that owns the business. In other words, they are asking for a “religious exemption” to avoid complying with “Obamacare.”
Outside the Supreme Court last month
Fallacy #1. The Greens believe that life begins at conception and because both contraceptives prevent embryos from implanting in a woman’s uterus, the Greens claim they will be “complicit in abortion.” Whenever you think life begins, it is difficult to understand how stopping a sperm from reaching an egg makes you an abortionist.
Fallacy #2. The Greens also believe that the contraceptive devices they oppose will cause abortion even after fertilization has taken place when real (not religion based) science proves the opposite. The contraceptives in question will not work (not abort) after the sperm and the egg are comfortably settled in.
It is difficult to believe that the Greens are sincere in their effort to “protect their employees” from “abortion on demand.” Three months after they filed their lawsuit, the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions.[i] Sincere or not, this is another fallacy-based attempt by the religious right to undermine rights and protections guaranteed all Americans.
