Hobby Lobby Myths Obliterated

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

truthThere is sooo much bad information floating around concerning this week’s Hobby Lobby opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, Save Jerseyans, that I couldn’t help but try to loudly and proudly dispel a few of the worst myths. Some of the Twitter comments weren’t just vile and dumb; they were symptomatic of a generation completely bereft of civics knowledge.

For a little further reading, the good folks over at NRO did a bang-up job of dissecting Justice Ginsburg’s dissent point-by-point; Hobby Lobby itself also devoted an entire website to clearing the air. Here are the broad strokes…

Myth #1: Hobby Lobby won’t cover female contraception.

The truth? Wildly incorrect. Hobby Lobby’s health plans, pre-Obamacare and through present day, cover 16 of 20 FDA-proved forms of contraception including multiple forms of the birth control pill:

  1. Male condoms
  2. Female condoms
  3. Diaphragms with spermicide
  4. Sponges with spermicide
  5. Cervical caps with spermicide
  6. Spermicide alone
  7. Birth-control pills with estrogen and progestin (“Combined Pill)
  8. Birth-control pills with progestin alone (“The Mini Pill)
  9. Birth control pills (extended/continuous use)
  10. Contraceptive patches
  11. Contraceptive rings
  12. Progestin injections
  13. Implantable rods
  14. Vasectomies
  15. Female sterilization surgeries
  16. Female sterilization implants

Hobby Lobby’s suit stemmed from four specific types of contraception acting post-fertilization and, that being the case, many pro-lifers believe they aren’t contraceptive or preventive at all but abortifacients.

Myth #2: the Hobby Lobby decision will affect insurance coverage for Americans beyond access to contraception.

The truth? Not even close. Directly from Justice Alito’s opinion (not the distorted, politically-motivated interpretation of Democrat politicians):

“This decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to hold that all insurance-coverage mandates, e.g., for vaccinations or blood transfusions, must necessarily fall if they conflict with an employer’s religious beliefs. Nor does it provide a shield for employers who might cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice.”

The decision is extremely narrowly-tailored and, as such, as limited applicability.

Myth #3: the Supreme Court is “making law” by trimming the contraception mandate’s sails.

The truth? The Court merely breathed new life back into a law signed into law by a Democrat President… but not enforced by one of his successors… even though his wife now opposes it? A solid explanation from El Rushbo

“… Hobby Lobby was simply saying we already have a federal law that supports us.  It is a Bill Clinton law that was signed into law in 1993.  We have had our religious freedom restored.  We already have the freedom to do this.  We are not violating a law.  And indeed, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was essentially upheld, and Obama’s regulation or executive order was slapped down.

And yet there’s Mrs. Clinton out ripping the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, not knowing or unaware or either aware and trying to escape any knowledge that she knew what she was doing, attacking it.  Can I make another point?  ‘Cause I think that is quite profound and it was not something I was gonna be able to figure out during yesterday’s program.  I didn’t have the time to delve into this before the program started.

In 1993, Democrats, House and Senate, near unanimously agreed with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  And so the court held that the government could provide coverage or contraceptives and abortifacients without forcing Americans to violate their sincerely religious beliefs.  Hobby Lobby said, “Look, there is this thing out there called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which gives us statutory law.  We are not gonna provide these four contraceptives.  They violate our religious tenets and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is what we’re standing on.”

 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8404 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

3 Comments

  1. For profit corporations have religious beliefs? Wait till you see fundamentalist Muslim for profit corporations exercise their beliefs over the lives of their employees and let all know if you still agree!

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