On today's Hobby Lobby decision by the supreme court.
So yeah, today: the Supreme Court upheld Hobby Lobby’s decision to discriminate against some of their employees and refuse to provide birth control coverage on the grounds that providing birth control infringed on the corporations “Deeply Held Religious Beliefs.” This makes me angry. It pisses me off. Basically, the supreme court has opened a door that that could have disastrous consequences.
“I’m an anti-vaccinationist, so because of my Deeply Held Religious Beliefs, I won’t allow any of my employees to have insurance that covers vaccinations.” “I’m a Christian Scientist, so because of my Deeply Held Religious Beliefs, I won’t allow any of my employees to have insurance that covers invasive surgery. Pray your way to health!” “I’m an old school southern Baptist, Therefore I will no longer be hiring black people because my Deeply Held Religious Beliefs tell me that races shouldn’t intermingle.”
As I type those, I’m reminded of the conservative argument against gay marriage here, Where they say, “What will prevent a man from marrying his dog or a woman marrying her toaster?” and how some people would call me a hypocrite for laughing off those people because I support gay marriage, but for being genuinely concerned about this issue. The big difference between the two issues is the idea that gay marriage opens up the door to interspecies intermingling is patently ridiculous for reasons that are easily googleable if you don’t have the common sense to figure them out for yourself. The fear of the doors that the Hobby Lobby decision will open up is a genuine one, because there are people that genuinely feel that if they can foist their will on someone and hide behind Deeply Held Religious Beliefs to get away with it, they will.
This calls to mind the decision a few weeks ago where the supreme court said that there could no longer be buffer zones around abortion clinics. Great! Now Bullies and Hate-mongers are free to do whatever they want in the face of people who are just doing a job and women and men who are already in a fragile emotional state because they are making what was probably one of the hardest decisions of their lives.
Did you know that abortions are at their lowest levels right now since Roe vs. Wade? Why is that, I wonder? Because people are getting educated, and they have access to birth control. Also, did you know that only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s (the main target of these protesters (And sadly, anti-abortion activist violence)), activity is abortions? 3%. That’s it. What’s the other 97%? Education, Treatment for women, Neonatal care, counseling, access to birth control that is NOT abortion, and dozens of other services. With today’s decision, The supreme court has simply opened a door that could potentially lead to an increase in the abortion rate. Irony is a bitch, huh, Hobby Lobby?
There’s a myriad of reasons why people use birth control, and they aren’t all, “I want to have crazy satanic non-babby making sex with 12 people at once!” A lot of women use hormonal birth control for a variety of medical reasons, and then there’s the only reason anyone really needs to use birth control and that is IT’S NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS WHETHER SOMEONE USES BIRTH CONTROL OR NOT!
I know there will be some of you out there saying, “Hey Dan, why are you so anti-God all of a sudden? When did you become an atheist.” Sorry, I’m not an atheist. I do believe in god and that we should live good lives. I simply don’t support religion anymore. I think that we can all be good people and live lives that would make God proud of us, and we don’t need to listen to men in silly hats, cheap suits, and gaudy robes every Saturday or Sunday to justify it. When it comes right down to it, tho, my religious beliefs don’t have diddly squat to do with the situation at hand. You don’t have to be Christian, or jewish, or muslim, or atheist, or whatever to see that this is a backwards piece of legislation, and it has hurt our country. Religious beliefs should be kept out of the running of business. If the Boss is a devout whatever, fine, dandy, that’s great for him. I’m all for people worshipping (or not) however they please as long as you don’t force it on anyone else. Your religious beliefs won’t effect my job performance at all, unless you try to start foisting your religious beliefs on me. That’s harassment, and it shouldn’t be tolerated.
Supreme court, you have made a horrible mistake today. You allowed the personal convictions of a few people effect thousands, maybe millions of people that don’t share their beliefs. I hope that this get’s the hell appealed out of it, because to let this stand is a huge step backwards in our progress as a country, and if it stands, this will be viewed as a dark day for future generations to come. I will pray for you, Hobby Lobby. No, wait, scratch that: I will pray for your employees whose lives are now being effected by your short-sighted ignorance. I hope they eventually move on and get better jobs with people that aren’t ignorant fucks. As for you, Hobby Lobby? I hope you go bankrupt, like your morals.