After a few days of BS being floated in the media about the Hobby Lobby case, I think it is worth taking a look at what actually happened here.
Let's start with undisputed facts:
1. There is a federal law that is meant to protect persons from actions by the federal government that limit their religious freedom. That law requires that the federal government can impose requirements that limit religious liberty only if there is a compelling federal interest to do so and there is no less restrictive alternative available to the government. No one disputes this. In fact, the law that protects religious freedom was passed twenty years ago. Among those who voted for it were Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and many other Democrats. It passed the Senate 97 to 3 and the House by a similar margin. It was then signed into law by Bill Clinton (remember him--Hillary's husband).
2. If an individual has a business and has employees, the government will not force that individual to provide health insurance including all forms of birth control if the individual is opposed for religious reasons to abortions. That's right. If I have a business with 65 employees and I have religious reasons to oppose abortions, I do not have to provide health insurance that includes the morning after pill and the other similar methods. This is not an argument; it is the clear law which even the Obama Administration accepts.
3. If I have that same business, but I own it with a partner, and we both have religious objections to certain forms of birth control that are essentially early abortions, I do not have to provide health insurance that includes those forms.
4. If my partner and I decide that we are going to run our business as a non-profit corporation, nothing changes. According to the government, we still do not have to provide the abortion-like birth control methods to our employees.
5. For all of these entities (the businesses in item 2, 3, and 4 above), the government provides a separate method which allows all the employees to get ALL forms of birth control. It just takes away from the employer the obligation to violate his or her religious beliefs by being the one to provide that coverage.
Put all that together and it means that the Obama administration already has in place a method for providing ALL FORMS of birth control to all women who work in companies whose owners have religious objections to abortion. That's right -- there is an existing method to make sure that every woman who wants to get free birth control services that are tantamount to abortion can do so.
Now let's get to the nub of the Hobby Lobby case. In that case, the company that employs the women is owned by a family that incorporated their business. They did not run it as a partnership. They did not run it as a non-profit corporation. They, like millions of other Americans, ran their business as a corporation. That presented the Supreme Court with a rather straightforward question: did the owners of Hobby Lobby give up their rights to religious freedom because they incorporated their business? The court said no.
Right now, if Obama actually cares about women getting the forms of birth control that are tantamount to abortion, all it need do is to issue a regulation that extends the already-existing rules for such coverage to corporations of this sort. That's it. Obama could use that pen he keeps talking about to do that in about ten seconds (if he writes slowly). So far, however, he has done nothing.
The truth is that Obama and the Obamacrats would much rather have a Supreme Court decision about which they can lie that to actually do the thing that would give women the "help" that Obama says they need.
Let's start with undisputed facts:
1. There is a federal law that is meant to protect persons from actions by the federal government that limit their religious freedom. That law requires that the federal government can impose requirements that limit religious liberty only if there is a compelling federal interest to do so and there is no less restrictive alternative available to the government. No one disputes this. In fact, the law that protects religious freedom was passed twenty years ago. Among those who voted for it were Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and many other Democrats. It passed the Senate 97 to 3 and the House by a similar margin. It was then signed into law by Bill Clinton (remember him--Hillary's husband).
2. If an individual has a business and has employees, the government will not force that individual to provide health insurance including all forms of birth control if the individual is opposed for religious reasons to abortions. That's right. If I have a business with 65 employees and I have religious reasons to oppose abortions, I do not have to provide health insurance that includes the morning after pill and the other similar methods. This is not an argument; it is the clear law which even the Obama Administration accepts.
3. If I have that same business, but I own it with a partner, and we both have religious objections to certain forms of birth control that are essentially early abortions, I do not have to provide health insurance that includes those forms.
4. If my partner and I decide that we are going to run our business as a non-profit corporation, nothing changes. According to the government, we still do not have to provide the abortion-like birth control methods to our employees.
5. For all of these entities (the businesses in item 2, 3, and 4 above), the government provides a separate method which allows all the employees to get ALL forms of birth control. It just takes away from the employer the obligation to violate his or her religious beliefs by being the one to provide that coverage.
Put all that together and it means that the Obama administration already has in place a method for providing ALL FORMS of birth control to all women who work in companies whose owners have religious objections to abortion. That's right -- there is an existing method to make sure that every woman who wants to get free birth control services that are tantamount to abortion can do so.
Now let's get to the nub of the Hobby Lobby case. In that case, the company that employs the women is owned by a family that incorporated their business. They did not run it as a partnership. They did not run it as a non-profit corporation. They, like millions of other Americans, ran their business as a corporation. That presented the Supreme Court with a rather straightforward question: did the owners of Hobby Lobby give up their rights to religious freedom because they incorporated their business? The court said no.
Right now, if Obama actually cares about women getting the forms of birth control that are tantamount to abortion, all it need do is to issue a regulation that extends the already-existing rules for such coverage to corporations of this sort. That's it. Obama could use that pen he keeps talking about to do that in about ten seconds (if he writes slowly). So far, however, he has done nothing.
The truth is that Obama and the Obamacrats would much rather have a Supreme Court decision about which they can lie that to actually do the thing that would give women the "help" that Obama says they need.
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