The Supremes & Hobby Lobby

Today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court reflects what’s deeply wrong with this country.

The specifics: Hobby Lobby, a Christian owned hobby company, challenged the contraception part of the health care mandate in the Affordable Care Act that requires most companies to cover a broad spectrum of birth control for female employees. The ruling said that “closely held corporations could not be required to provide birth control coverage for their employees.” The owners of Hobby Lobby believe that some forms of contraception are akin to abortion.

And because corporations, thanks to an earlier court ruling, are now viewed as “people” who have rights, five men on the court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby. This ruling did NOT include vasectomies and Viagra.

It’s not clear how a for-profit company can be considered a religious organization. But what IS clear with this ruling is if you are a woman who works for Hobby Lobby, your boss is the one who will determine whether you can use an IUD.  Your boss is the one who will tell you what these five male justices did – you want birth control? Tell the government to pay for it.

Yes, women can pay privately for birth control. But it’s not cheap and if you’re working for an hourly wage, you’re probably already struggling to make ends meet.  So the ruling is likely to result in a greater number of abortions – IF you live in a state where you can even find a clinic that still performs them.

Republicans in many states have succeeded in passing laws that have placed such dire restrictions on abortion that in some places in this country, a woman has to drive hundreds of miles for the procedure. Or she has to wait several days and must be “informed” about the viability for the fetus – you know, scare tactics. Brainwashing.

These same politicians are the ones who claim to believe in the sanctity of all life – but are eager to send you into war.  You are of more interest to them when you’re a fetus than when you’re born. After you’re born, well, you’re on your own. And oh, when you come back from that war, torn apart, your body in shambles, you’re lucky if you can see a doctor soon because the Veteran’s Administration is a bureaucratic nightmare.

So now, corporations aren’t just people; they have more rights than you do as an individual.  And what’s incredibly hypocritical about Hobby Lobby is that they have significant investments in pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the very contraceptions  they are denying to their employees.

The five men on the supreme court who supported this ruling might as well be aliens from Saturn; that’s how little they understand about how most Americans live. Then again, once you hit the highest court in the land, you are breathing rarefied air. You’re up there in history with the feudal lords, the king and queens, the slave masters, the profiteers, the money changers.

Yet, it’s possible – dimly possible – that the ruling might eventually push health insurance for contraception away from employers and into the hands of government through Medicare or some other single payer system. That would be the best end result. But who knows how many hoops this will entail, how many  legal arguments, how many detours.

My main question at this point, more than forty years after Roe v Wade is this: why are supreme court justices appointed for life? I know the original thinking was that a lifetime appointment would supposedly separate them from the political party in power. Ha. Take a look at the five men who voted for this travesty:

John Roberts – chief justice – ROMAN CATHOLIC, appointed by George W Bush in 2005

Anthony Scalia – ROMAN CATHOLIC, appointed by Reagan, 1986. Supposedly a member of Opus Dei (Google that one unless you’ve read Dan Brown and already know!).

Anthony Kennedy– ROMAN CATHOLIC, appointed by Reagan, 1988.

Clarence Thomas – ROMAN CATHOLIC (oops, Anita Hill is here somewhere. Google her),  appointed by George Herbert Walker Bush (W’s daddy) , 1991.

Samuel Alito-  ROMAN CATHOLIC, appointed by George W Bush, 2006.

ALL CATHOLICS. Really?? Are you kidding me?

Is it any wonder that the court ruled the way it did??