Matt C. Abbott
Varying pro-life reactions to Hobby Lobby ruling
By Matt C. Abbott
There have been quite a few statements by pro-life organizations reacting to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. (Incidentally, radical pro-aborts took to Twitter after the ruling was announced and called for Hobby Lobby stores to be burned to the ground. How "tolerant" they are.)
The following are a sampling of those statements.
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer:
July 2, 2014
There have been quite a few statements by pro-life organizations reacting to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. (Incidentally, radical pro-aborts took to Twitter after the ruling was announced and called for Hobby Lobby stores to be burned to the ground. How "tolerant" they are.)
The following are a sampling of those statements.
Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer:
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The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court's decision involving Obamacare's contraceptive mandate. The decision favors the religious freedom rights of Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation and their owners.
The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer was one of several organizations represented by attorneys at the Bioethics Defense Fund that informed the court in an amicus brief about the grave health risks associated with use of contraceptive/abortifacient steroids and devices – the birth control pill (whose drugs are delivered orally, or via skin patch or vaginal ring), the Depo Provera injection, the Implanon rod, the ParaGard Intrauterine Copper IUD, and the Mirena IUD.
The World Health Organization classified the Pill with estrogen and progestin as a Group 1 carcinogen for cancers of the breast, liver and cervix. Although the Pill reduces risk for less common cancers of the endometrium and ovaries, four times as many U.S. women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually than are diagnosed with cancers of the endometrium and ovaries combined....
Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer said, 'The majority's opinion didn't cite our brief, but perhaps it swayed one or two votes. The contraceptive mandate increases access to the Pill and Depo Provera, so it will aggravate the breast cancer epidemic. The Obama administration is waging a war on women's health.
'However, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who authored the minority's opinion, shamefully ignored the World Health Organization's warnings on the Pill and cited a brief in support of the contraceptive mandate filed by the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, which cites the reduced ovarian cancer risk provided by the Pill.
'How does it benefit women if the incidence of an uncommon cancer (of the ovaries) is decreased through use of the Pill, but a far worse epidemic of breast cancer is aggravated? Justice Ginsburg's willingness to close her eyes to that epidemic exposes her willingness to allow her pro-abortion ideology to trump science.'
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'The Supreme Court's decision striking down the Abortion Pill Mandate on people of faith who own and have built family businesses is a tremendous victory for religious liberty,' said Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society. 'This decision ensures broad protection for the rights of business owners across the country to live out their faith in the marketplace'.....
In January 2014, the Thomas More Society also filed an amicus brief in the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the religious liberty of private employers who seek to practice, as well as profess, their religious faith in the conduct of their business.
'I am proud that our Supreme Court has upheld the fundamental religious liberties of American citizens to engage in the free exercise of their religious beliefs, not only in their houses of worship, but also in their day to day lives, in business as well as at home,' said Thomas Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society. 'Our Justices have affirmed that Americans must not be compelled to put aside their religious beliefs and values as a pre-condition to their entering into the sphere of commerce and making a living for themselves and their families.'
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'While on the surface today's Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case appears to be a victory for religious liberty,' said Judie Brown, president of American Life League, 'a careful reading of the decision reveals problems for the future.
'In what it admits is a very narrow ruling, the court bought the argument that the government has a 'compelling interest' in providing free abortifacient products to women. It only objected to the government making for-profit business owners pay for those products. The court specifically explained that the government could potentially solve the problem by offering for-profit businesses the same accommodation that is offered to the nonprofit sector – the same accommodation that is the subject of numerous lawsuits.
'The court also specifically said the government could solve the problem by just paying for all contraceptives itself, including the abortifacient ones. Of course, the only money the government has comes from taxpayers. Thus, the Supreme Court, in deciding this case, told the government that money taken from taxpayers – many of whom have the same objections as the business owners in this case – can be used to pay for these abortifacient products.
'While today's decision is a victory for the for-profit businesses who brought the case, it appears to simply continue the slide of America into hedonism. America is no longer a country that hails truth over falsehoods. It has been reduced to a conglomeration of institutions willing to settle for the 'least burdensome' way to embrace evil. May God have mercy on us.'
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Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life and a plaintiff in Priests for Life's lawsuit challenging the HHS mandate, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court's decision in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell.
'The Obama administration has repeatedly shown itself to be on the wrong side of religious freedom, on the wrong side of the Constitution, and on the wrong side of America. Today's decision demonstrates that once again. Citizens who have religious freedom individually do not lose it when they act collectively. Today's decision takes our nation in the right direction.
'But the Supreme Court, while correctly deciding that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects the religious freedom of the Green family and others who own their own businesses, does not resolve the problem that religious groups have with the so-called 'accommodation.' In the government's view, that accommodation should satisfy our objections. But the 'accommodation' still requires a kind of cooperation that our faith does not allow. The Hobby Lobby decision only emphasizes the urgency and importance of pursuing Priests for Life's own appeal against the HHS mandate....'
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