By Scott Tibbs, July 11, 2014
The Supreme Court's decision in the Hobby Lobby case was hailed as a victory for religious freedom - and it was - but it is troubling that the case was decided on the basis of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act instead of on the First Amendment. Laws can always be superseded by more laws, but the Constitution is much more difficult to change.
There was one particularly troubling part of the majority opinion:
| The owners of the businesses have religious objections to abortion, and according to their religious beliefs the four contraceptive methods at issue are abortifacients. |
This is one of the worst aspects of modern society: The rejection of objective truth and the deference to subjective opinion. It is worrisome that this sort of nonsense has infected the "conservative" SCOTUS majority. The morning after pill and other birth control methods either act as abortifacients or they do not. It is simply irresponsible for the "conservative" majority to punt this question and make it a matter of "belief" rather than fact.
According to the website for the drug Plan B, it does act as an abortifacient:
| It is possible that Plan B One-Step® may also work by preventing fertilization of an egg (the uniting of sperm with the egg) or by preventing attachment (implantation) to the uterus (womb). |
See screenshots posted on Twitter and Photobucket.
One of the most common justifications for forcing employers to purchase birth control for employees is that the insurance policy is owned by the employee. This is true, but the policy (and what it covers) is constructed by the employer. Even within many companies, there are different levels of policy and what is covered. By the logic of "the employee owns the policy," health insurance would be mandated to cover everything from elective cosmetic surgery to over-the-counter painkillers and cold medicine to sex-change operations. It is a silly argument.
The Hobby Lobby case is typical of our national entitlement mentality. "Waah! If someone else does not buy something for me, then I am denied access to that thing." That may be the case for a two year old, but adults can always purchase the drugs they want with their own money. It would have been unthinkable fifty years ago that employers should be forced to pay for employees' birth control, but our society has declined quite a bit since then.
