Hillary Clinton called the Hobby Lobby decision “deeply disturbing.”
The White House reacted like the world had just ended.
Harry Reid promised that Democrats in Congress would “fight to preserve women’s access to contraceptive coverage and keep bosses out of the examination room.”
All this liberal hysteria followed the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday that for-profit employers who have religious objections cannot be forced to provide their employees with contraception coverage under the rules of ObamaCare.
The challenge to what’s left of ObamaCare in the Hobby Lobby case was brought to the Supreme Court by Hobby Lobby, a national chain of craft stores owned by evangelical Christians from Oklahoma.
Hobby Lobby’s owners, and the owners of other businesses that supported them, weren’t seeking to deprive their 13,000 employees of all contraception coverage in their health plans, just certain kinds that they had religious and moral objections to.
The business owners didn’t want to be forced by ObamaCare mandates to provide the morning-after pill and certain intrauterine devices because they considered those contraceptive methods to be the equivalent of an abortion.
Of course, liberals and progressives - i.e., most of the mainstream Bicoastal media - don’t care what a bunch of religious people from Oklahoma think.
Freedom of religion my hat. Barrack, Hillary and Harry believe “free” contraception for every American woman is a new constitutional right - and companies should be forced to pay for every dime of it.
Hillary, showing her famous empathy for poor people like her, blurted out her knee-jerk spin:
“It’s very troubling that a sales clerk at Hobby Lobby who needs contraception, which is pretty expensive, is not going to get that service through her employer’s health care plan because her employer doesn’t think she should be using contraception.”
Hillary got it doubly wrong. She made it seem that contraception is affordable only to non-rich people like her and that Hobby Lobby was seeking to deny its employees all contraception coverage.
But exaggeration and fear-mongering is part of the Democrat game plan. They want all women to think the Hobby Lobby ruling is just the latest campaign in the never-ending Republican/conservative war on women.
Democrats already are sending out emails, trying to raise money and rally voters to fight the assault on their contraceptive “rights.”
They’re accusing Hobby Lobby’s owners of wanting to force their religious beliefs on women, yet Democrats think it’s perfectly moral and just to use government to force their non-religious beliefs on the owners.
The news media, of course, played along with Democrats. Instead of treating the Supreme Court’s decision as news - and explaining what it did and did not mean for women and business owners - the media focused on the politics and the war on women.
The reality of the Hobby Lobby ruling is that no one is telling women they can’t get contraceptives. What they are saying is that in some cases you are going to have to pay for them yourself.
What a concept! BYOC - Buy Your Own Contraceptives!
I have a question for all you poor women, like Hillary, who think that having to pay for your own contraception is some sort of government oppression:
Did you ever think of asking the man you’re having sex with to buy his own condoms? Or do you think the government should provide those also?
Nobody’s taking your contraceptive options away. You still have plenty of choices. Purchase your own birth control. Don’t have sex. Get a new job.
Nobody is forced to go to work for Hobby Lobby or any other company. If you’re not happy with your employer’s contraception benefit package, find another job where they’ll provide all the free things you want.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.