US: Judge Must Deny Hobby Lobby Birth-Control Case
Source: Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The U.S. government is urging a federal judge to deny a Hobby Lobby Stores request to block the enforcement of a new health care law that requires employers to give staff insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar drugs.
Last month, the arts and crafts supply chain filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City that alleges the mandate is unconstitutional. The company wants an injunction to prohibit the law's enforcement. The Oklahoma City-based store says the mandate will force its owners to violate deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines.
Read more: http://www.wandtv.com/story/19903406/us-judge-must-deny-hobby-lobby-birth-control-case
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The Blue Flower
(5,434 posts)This is such a twisted, ridiculous argument.
crunch60
(1,412 posts)MY LETTER TO HOBBY LOBBY..
I will be Boycotting Hobby Lobby. You bring your personal religious beliefs into an issue that should be my personal choice. As an artist, I will no longer shop as a store that I like very much, and will encourage all my artists friends to do the same. Please reconsider your decision. Where does it end? What if the employer doesn't believe in vaccines? Of if the employer is a Seventh Day Adventist or a Christian Scientist. Of if the employer doesn't believe in playing sports on Sunday and thus won't cover any sporting injury sustained on the Lord's Day. --------------------- The U.S. government is urging a federal judge to deny a Hobby Lobby Stores request to block the enforcement of a new health care law that requires employers to give staff insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar drugs. Last month, the arts and crafts supply chain filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City that alleges the mandate is unconstitutional. The company wants an injunction to prohibit the law's enforcement. The Oklahoma City-based store says the mandate will force its owners to violate deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines.
HOBBY LOBBY RESPONSE TO ME..........
Vincent Parker vincent.parker@hobbylobby.com
12:41 PM (4 hours ago)
Thank you for your email, we appreciate your comments. We respect your right to free speech, and we value you as a customer. We hope that you will respect our rights in the same way. Hobby Lobby is a company that was built on Biblical principles, and we believe that we cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.
We do not wish to control the actions of our employees, but we also cannot go against our beliefs and provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs. We will still cover preventive birth control for our employees.
If you would like more information, I can give you a website you can visit that might help answer your questions or concerns.
The website is www.becketfund.org/hobbylobby :
“The Green family respects the religious convictions of all Americans, including those who do not agree with them. All they are asking is for the government to give them the same respect by not forcing them to violate their religious beliefs.
“The Green family has no moral objection to the use of preventive contraceptives and will continue its longstanding practice of covering these preventive contraceptives for its employees. However, the Green family cannot provide or pay for two specific abortion-inducing drugs. These drugs are Plan B and Ella, the so-called morning-after pill and the week-after pill. Covering these drugs, as the government is forcing them to do under the threat of $1.3 million penalty per day, would violate their most deeply held religious belief that life begins at conception, when an egg is fertilized. The FDA-approved government birth control guide clearly states that these two drugs, the morning-after pill and the week-after pill, may prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the womb, thus aborting the fertilized egg.
“Hobby Lobby is not ‘denying women healthcare,’ as the petition falsely claims. Hobby Lobby provides generous health care benefits and wages to all its employees. Their benefits have always included the vast majority of birth control drugs and will continue to do so. The government, however, wants to force Hobby Lobby to cover two specific drugs that can cause early abortions. This is illegal and unconstitutional. The only people who are being denied anything are Hobby Lobby and the Green Family, who are being denied the right to practice their religion or face millions of dollars in fines.
“The petition also claims that Hobby Lobby is ‘confusing matters’ by claiming that the morning after pill causes abortion, but it is the petition itself that is confusing matter by spreading misinformation. The federal government’s own birth control guide clearly states that drugs like the morning after pill and the week after pill can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in the womb. Millions of Americans would consider that an early abortion.
“Finally, the petition says Hobby lobby ‘needs to hear immediately’ that it cannot ‘use Christian faith as an excuse to undermine healthcare reforms.’ The petitioners are flat wrong, the only thing being undermined here is Hobby Lobby’s Christian faith, not ‘healthcare reforms.’ The morning after and week after pills are widely available and employees are free to purchase them as they please. The government itself spends billions of dollars a year on free family planning services. But what the petitioners “need to hear immediately” is that the government cannot use healthcare reform as an excuse for trampling on religious rights.” -Kyle Duncan, The Becket Fund
Vince Parker
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
JPK
(650 posts)Michael's has all the artist supplies that Hobby Lobby has without all the cheap made in china crap furniture and brik a brak.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)bongbong
(5,436 posts)Do Not Buy From list.
slampoet
(5,032 posts)Panasonic
(2,921 posts)like those that own Chick-Fil-A.
A MUST AVOID place.
Go to Michael's if you have one around.
slampoet
(5,032 posts)
matt819
(10,749 posts)What if the employer doesn't believe in vaccines?
Of if the employer is a Seventh Day Adventist or a Christian Scientist.
Of if the employer doesn't believe in playing sports on Sunday and thus won't cover any sporting injury sustained on the Lord's Day.
WTF is wrong with these people?
KarenS
(4,063 posts)some religions do not believe in them.
I agree, where does it end??
crunch60
(1,412 posts)Vision
Hobby Lobby Partners with organizations working to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the world.
http://www.hobbylobby.com/our_company/ministry.cfm
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)"Grand Canyon University" sounds like the name of one of those degree mills that keep sending you spam, doesn't it?
Moral: Do not venture within 500 feet of a Hobby Lobby.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)
EC
(12,287 posts)any right to tell an employee what meds can be included on their insurance?
bucolic_frolic
(43,062 posts)to force one's religious beliefs on the minds and bodies of others
This is so slippery. A religious belief is PERSONAL. I cannot tell another
what God to believe in, what temple to attend, what day to worship,
whether to worship at all.
It's really about beliefs and private property rights. You cannot impose
either on another unless you own those rights, and you can't own the mind
and/or body of another person.
crunch60
(1,412 posts)They opened a store in Henderson, NV this past year, I was looking froward to shopping there, but now I won't.
The Dude
(7 posts)I thought I remember a lengthy smack down from a judge who threw the case out, citing that employers can't force on their employees what choices to make with their benefits, that it would be like telling them what they can or can't but with their paycheck.
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)I am so frigging tired of businesses claiming to be "victims".
Businesses, unless they are so stupid as to use the common partnership form of organization, enjoy EXTREMELY beneficial liability protection. Whether they are an LLC, LLP, LLLP, corporation, etc. the owners of the company are not liable for the actions of the organization. They will always be liable for their own personal actions. That is a tremendous benefit to businesses and investors that is never recognized or acknowledged. Should they be held liable? Probably not if they are shareholders of a large corporation. Should they be held liable if there are two owners? Questionable.
Further they benefit from our free market economy, anti-trust laws, etc.
If they want to engage in business activity it is perfectly reasonable that their personally held beliefs be suspended. This is about balancing all the "give aways" we give to businesses and their owners and treating employees fairly.
Politicub
(12,165 posts)johnsmith9875
(14 posts)Trust me I live here, I know.
The Hobby Lobby in my town closes on Sunday out of christian demands that it be a day of rest, and interestingly the nearby chick-fil-a does it as well for the same reason.
The idea that they can selectively deny health services to people is ludicrous. That opens up a pandora's box which could mean your employer could deny other things such as birth control, family planning services, even specific drugs that they feel violate their religious views. What if your boss happens to be a scientologist and they think all health care is wrong?
Panasonic
(2,921 posts)Both places closes on Sundays here too.
They are both in the "Avoid like the plague" list.
Welcome to DU! 
jmowreader
(50,530 posts)I went in one, once, because I needed some candy oil (very potent flavoring that survives 300-degree heat) and figured they'd have some. No candy oil is there but whole aisles of Christian decor was. I would put the ratio of Christian decor to hobby supplies at 9-1.
llmart
(15,533 posts)overpriced crap made in China. I've never bought a thing in there and now I never will.
Mrs. Ted Nancy
(462 posts)1:00PM EDT 9/28/2012 GINA MEEKS
Christian activists are demanding Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. drop its lawsuit opposing the Health and Human Services “preventive services” mandate.
The Rev. Lance Schmitz, pastor of the Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City, Okla., was turned away from Hobby Lobby's headquarters Thursday when he attempted to deliver a petition.
“I thought they'd let me drop off the package,” Schmitz said. “I thought a Christian business would be interested in hearing from a pastor with a petition signed by thousands of people of faith. I guess Hobby Lobby is more interested in using their faith to score political points than in finding a way to ensure that its female employees get the health care they need.”
-snip-
The pastor said more than 80,000 people had signed copies of a petition circulated nationwide by the online Christian group Faithful America, and women's rights group UltraViolet. The petitions accuse the Green family of using their faith as an excuse to obstruct the reform of health care and deny women access to birth control. The signatories have vowed not to stop at the craft store until it dismisses the lawsuit.
http://www.charismanews.com/us/34233-christian-groups-petition-hobby-lobby-over-hhs-lawsuit
There are some sane Christians in Oklahoma.
Also... does this mean that Hobby Lobby will need an "activist judge" to declare that a secular corporation can claim a religious exception to the law?
