-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO David Green has filed a lawsuit challenging the health care mandate to provide what Green “believe[s] are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance.” Green goes on to say: “Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill.”
The District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma denied Green’s motion for a preliminary injunction The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit denied the applicants’ motion for an injunction and Justice Sotomayor also denied the application for an injunction pending appellate review.
Are Green’s beliefs regarding the morning-after pill (Plan B) or the week-after pill (Ella) reasonable?
Green never defined what he means by “abortion,” but let’s assume he uses the Christian definition that seeks to equate pregnancy with fertilization. The scientific and medical definition of pregnancy comes from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and states:
implantation of the blastocyst into the lining of the uterus at the conclusion of which pregnancy is established.
Plan B works by impeding the sperm from entering the uterus by thickening cervical mucus. Plan B can also stop the release of an egg from the ovaries or slow down the movement of the egg. These methods could prevent fertilization. Some have argued that Plan B creates a “hostile endometrium” that disrupts implantation. However, Dr. Sandra Reznik writes in Health Progress, a publication of The Catholic Health Association of the United States, that if Plan B:
involved a change in the endometrium, then one would expect a higher rate of success [in preventing pregnancy]. … Taken together, there are biological, clinical and epidemiological data clearly indicating that Plan B’s mechanism of action involves only pre-fertilization events.
Ella is a newer drug with a chemical composition similar to RU-486. However, in studies, two percent of women who took Ella became pregnant. This failure rate indicates that Ella does not have RU-486’s effect on the endometrium.
Regarding normal birth control pills, that is, non-emergency contraceptives, even Prolife Ob/Gyn’s can find no evidence of the pill’s effect on implantation. The Prolife Ob/Gyn’s note that if the pill is an abortifacient, “we would expect to see a huge increase in ectopics in women on hormonal birth control. We don’t.” They go on to say that we “know of no existing scientific studies that validate the “hostile endometrium is abortifacient” theory.”
Even by his definition of what constitutes a pregnancy, Green’s beliefs that contraceptives are “abortion causing” are nonsense.
H/T: National Catholic Reporter, Rachel Benson Gold, Religious Tolerance.
Mr gree n once fired a woman manager at one of his mardel stores for getting pregnant without being married
Holly lobby makes me proud to be a christian. To many christians do not stand up for there convictions. This world seems to have no integrity any more. good for you. I will be praying for you that God will continue to give you hope and peace .If more christians stood up for what is right our world would not be in the mess that it is in. I am 73 years old and i have seen some things that are OK now,that were against the law when i was a kid. it blows me away. How can people be so blind. Thank you for standing up for what is right.
h
I am a mother, Republican, and Christian and this is very disturbing to me. It dentures me because how people are trying to hide behind their religious beliefs instead of obeying God. Mr. Green is like the Pharisees who tried to trick Jesus about the taxes. Should you pat Ceasar or not. As He told them, “give Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and God what is God’s. your company has made millions off the secular dollar now you want to cry religious freedom, that’s a foul and I am upset about it. You also have to think about other relious beliefs. What if your boss is a Jehovah’s Witness and does not want to cover your blood transfusion or organ transplant. When you open this type of legal pandora box you never know what will come out. I do not want my employer dictating my health coverage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonard-peikoff/abortion-rights-are-pro-life_b_2526853.html
“We must not confuse potentiality with actuality. An embryo is a potential human being. It can, granted the woman’s choice, develop into an infant. But what it actually is during the first trimester is a mass of relatively undifferentiated cells that exist as a part of a woman’s body. If we consider what it is rather than what it might become, we must acknowledge that the embryo under three months is something far more primitive than a frog or a fish. To compare it to an infant is ludicrous.
If we are to accept the equation of the potential with the actual and call the embryo an “unborn child,” we could, with equal logic, call any adult an “undead corpse” and bury him alive or vivisect him for the instruction of medical students.
That tiny growth, that mass of protoplasm, exists as a part of a woman’s body. It is not an independently existing, biologically formed organism, let alone a person. That which lives within the body of another can claim no right against its host. Rights belong only to individuals, not to collectives or to parts of an individual. (“Independent” does not mean self-supporting — a child who depends on its parents for food, shelter, and clothing, has rights because it is an actual, separate human being.)
“Rights,” in Ayn Rand’s words, “do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born.”
It is only on this base that we can support the woman’s political right to do what she chooses in this issue. No other person — not even her husband — has the right to dictate what she may do with her own body. That is a fundamental principle of freedom.”
I’ve said this many times before and I still don’t understand why we give such companies the time of day. Claiming a religious belief should not place you above the law. Period.
Supposedly they believe that contraception is a sin so they should be exempt from laws requiring companies to provide insurance covering such items.
Where does that end?
If a religion believes women are subservient to men should the company be allowed to deny a woman a position which would give her authority over male employees?
If a religion believes that any medical intervention is a sin and only prayer is proper, should they be exempt from all medical coverage?
If a religion believes that disabilities from birth are from God and making accommodations is sinful should companies be exempt from ADA laws.
And in a country with religious freedom, where ANY religious idea is allowed, a company or a person for that matter could claim that they are exempt from any and all laws.
No, claims of religious belief shouldn’t matter in the eyes of the law.
well I am supposed to go off on a long rant about many different subjects, while the mormon prophets are wondering how obama made it to his second term, and who wrote the warning order for a great burden for the navy seals, in the time of false prophets claiming to know god, but in the future it will be known.
the president keeps saying GOD bless america, and he listens to those that tell you that JESUS is not here. they worship jesus in other countries like mexico and spread the over population to other countries claiming religious beliefs without consequences. With the over abundance of campfires or cooking stoves as just part of the problem of global warming.
president obama the whole world is watching you say, GOD bless america. don’t be narrow minded, the Universe is MY DOMAIN. welcome to MY COMPUTER SYSTEM, LIVING VERSION VIDEO GAME. you have one soul, so DON’T lose it.
mr president I have president kimball rolling over in his grave like jp 2. these people tell you that a child is born into sin. if so, then these aborted fetuses will be the only souls saved according to the religions. the parents will go to hell. these are the same people that tell you that JESUS is not here.
the mormons have spoken against GOD in the election when romney said to ask his church, romney knew that they groomed him to take over the world, with back ups. every church wants GOD to claim their church to be correct and saved… ???
obama the whole world is watching while the antichist is using GOD to destroy the world. history is being written even on this web site. satan will fight for souls and I will send them to hell for following the antichrist. you have to learn to crawl before you can walk. and religions of the world, are the down fall of the world. I never said that I was going to destroy history, but it is written that I will set you free from the oppressors. so I hope that you are not trying to set up a catholic for the next president.
also noted in THE BIBLE, ONE GOD, ONE RELIGION. AND IT WILL BE MY DESIGN, not that of any clergy. GOD does not need a preacher.
in the future they will ask why was the promised land destroyed by those people.
the eyes of the world are on you mister president. will you lead the world to failures?
… their are many subjects not covered in this subject at the same time the ramifications are endless. a paradox has evolved.
it is written come hell or high water you will be called an antichrist. I did not say that, the antichrists have been doing this before you were known to “yourselves”. mr. president, I, like the the antichrists have been waiting for you. and since GOD is here like JESUS said, the christians are pissed off and pray that GOD return the Prophet to HEAVEN so they can continue in their evil ways against GOD.
Mr. president the blessing is written above, as you requested. it requires the united nations, not just the united states. don’t go it alone, but be the first as in, be not ashamed of GOD, because MY SON IS HERE TO. the people are in the clouds, so they are truly lost. like JESUS said, that when HE COMES AGAIN THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE, and be scurrying about even though they have had decades to prepare, they have not changed their ways, and the nations were mislead.
just like a clergy gets up in front of the masses and tells about their children that will go to an ivy league college, while some can’t afford to properly feed their own children, they ask that you donate more or , get excommunicated. so they all will be closed. they feed upon the weak.
And that mr. president is it, in the NUTS HELL as you asked!
Betty Lou Thelma Liz chimined in to say that David Green’s older brothers poked holes in the dad’s condoms and hence we have Green.
“To many, including [Mr. Spindell], Green’s actions are an attempt to impose his religious beliefs upon his employees.”
There is nothing I have seen showing that Hobby Lobby does not allow its employees to buy the abortifacients (or other drugs) at issue or that it in anyway imposes the owner’s religious beliefs on the employees, (but maybe I have missed it). On the other hand, when Congress requires a man to act against his religious beliefs, arguably it has “ma[de a] law … prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.
One of the beautiful things about our system is that Hobby Lobby can sue the government if it believes its rights are being infringed. It is disappointing (but not surprising) to see Hobby Lobby criticized for exercising that ability to sue.
Malisha and Darren,
I don’t think any Christian corporation would have sex without using protection!
God is not involved. Therefore those who claim to follow his dicta are…..words fail.
Nature has made us as we are, even to the point of monthly oestrus (conception receptive) as an expression in my eyes of man’s relative independence of the summer/winter feast/famine cycle dictating other animal’s being steered to a yearly opportunity. I have not read this as a theory, just hypothesizing based on random samples of proven data.
But for causes much speculated on, it gave us excess brain capacity.
And then the mischief begins, where the last ten thousand years have seen no improvement in our communal groups.
The modern stone age, living only on nature (Bushmen) do have a social system that gives a slight temporary food reward or a chance to lead the hunt again to the leader who succeeds. It also provides for the distribution of the hunt’s prize primarily after need. The women’s hunt for veg food is also divided amicably.
Their biggest taboo? To break out into anger or start a conflict. Really!
Well, all our technology then? Yeah, I don’t have the energy to answer that, but it sure has helped fool us, exchanging baubles for the treasure of our earth.
Take it from here if you like.
I never claimed that we ever had a paradise. But it does support life.
200,000 years so far for us, and 400,000 for Neandertals..
Do you think that we will get another 200,000 years?
Malisha wrote:
Rafflaw, if a corporation were a person, could it get pregnant?
~+~
It is called a “Holding Company.” It gives birth to wholely owned subsidiaries. 🙂