Washington Leadership Targets Hobby Lobby
by Joseph Backholm
Late last week, Gov. Jay Inslee and a group of Washington State Senators held a press conference near
a soon-to-be-opened Hobby Lobby store in North Seattle to assure voters
they will do whatever they can to force businesses in Washington State
to violate their conscience.
For
the last two years, the Washington State Senate has been controlled by a
Majority Coalition of Republicans and two Democrats. As a result, the
Governor's most radical proposals have failed to reach his desk.
In attempt to solve this problem, Gov. Inslee is pulling out all the stops.
Now, he's hoping to persuade votes of the need to force businesses like Hobby Lobby to violate their convictions about abortion.
By
way of review, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated that every
company provide 20 specific kinds of contraceptives in their health
plans. Hobby Lobby was willing to pay for 16 forms of birth control but
objected to four. The Supreme Court agreed with Hobby Lobby that federal
law protects the rights of people not to violate their conscience even
if they become employers.
The fact that you have a right to something, does not mean you have the right to make someone else buy it for you.
These
lawmakers, however, believe Washington's non-discrimination laws allow
them to force businesses to buy abortion drugs in violation of their
conscience.
Senator
Karen Keiser believes Hobby Lobby's freedom to choose is a real
problem. "This has real effect on tens of thousands of Washington
employees who are now at risk of losing access to their choice of birth
control."
Of
course that's just stuff you say at an election year press conference.
No one actually thinks women are about to lose their birth control.
The Center for Disease Control's own health statistics from 2013 show that
99% of women between the ages of 15-44
have used birth control. This was all before the ACA mandate. If 99% of
the people are using it before anyone thought they could force their
boss to buy it for them, there isn't a crisis of access.
In
the most ironic statement of the day, Sen. Kevin Ranker said that,
"This partisan politics around women's reproductive rights and core
values is unacceptable." Actually, that's something we can agree on, but
probably not for the reasons he's thinking.
Sadly,
efforts to force people to pay for abortion against their will is kind
of an old story. For three years in a row, the Washington State
legislature, led by Sen. Steve Hobbs in the Senate, has pushed a bill
that would make it illegal to purchase an insurance policy that doesn't
cover abortion.
Fortunately,
sanity has prevailed and - for now - women in Washington still have the
choice of what kind of health insurance they want to purchase.
Still,
the fact that our state's leadership is mounting another assault to
force people to violate their conscience and participate in abortion
shows a disturbing lack of empathy.
Someone
should propose legislation forcing them to idle their car for no reason
at all, cut down a tree, or throw an aluminum can into the waste bin
rather than the recycle container.
If
you care about the freedom to run your business according to your
beliefs, your freedom is on the ballot this November. At least they
warned us.
So
make sure you know which candidates on your ballot support conscience
rights, religious freedom, and the autonomy of people to choose for
themselves whether they will participate in controversial activities.
And then use
Vote Finder
to help your friends do the same. With Vote Finder you can find out if
your friends, family, or fellow parishioners have voted before the
election is over.
If
we all make sure just 10 other people who share our perspective vote,
the close elections will be decided in favor of people who value your
freedom as much as you do. Or, you can do nothing, be frustrated, and
watch Gov. Inslee and his billionaire friend toast to how much more
control over your life and business they now have.
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