Among all the hysterics following yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby, it’s Hillary Clinton’s response that is most troubling.
The potential Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidential election finds it “deeply disturbing” that craft chain Hobby Lobby and other “closely-held” for-profit companies do not have to provide contraceptives to their employees if doing so violates their religious beliefs.
During a Facebook Live interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, Clinton decried the ruling which restored the Green family’s right not to provide their employees with contraception and abortion services with which they disagree on religious grounds.
She said:
“I disagree with the reasoning as well as the conclusion. Just think about this for a minute. It’s the first time that our court has said that a closely held corporation has the rights of a person when it comes to religious freedom. Which means that the corporation, closely held, often family based, not exclusively but usually, can impose their religious beliefs on their employees and of course denying women contraception as part of their health care plan is exactly that. I find it deeply disturbing that we are going in that direction…”
Clinton called the ruling “a really bad slippery slope.” She finds it troubling that a sales clerk at Hobby Lobby who needs contraception–which is “pretty expensive,” in Clinton’s words–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.
The former secretary of state wraps up her thinking with this:
“Look, we’re always going to argue about abortion. It’s a hard choice, and it’s controversial, and that’s why I am pro-choice.”
She means, I guess, it MIGHT be killing a human being, science has PROVEN it’s killing a human being, but protecting the right to kill is politically expedient, so count me in.
* * * * *
So I’ve got to tell Ms. Clinton a few things that I’ve noticed:
- First, nobody “needs” contraception or abortion. Here are the ways women can get around this supposedly impossible hurdle:
- Remain chaste, engaging in sexual intercourse only with one’s life-long spouse. (Actually, I can’t take full credit for this idea; the Bible has been teaching this for thousands of years.)
- Welcome the children God gives you as the amazing gifts that they are. Nurture them in your happy home. They’ll provide a lot more joy than, say, a new boat and a vacation in Vegas.
- Nurse those children, providing them with the ideal sustenance best suited for their developing bodies. This will provide some natural protection against another pregnancy “too soon” (as if God could make a mistake).
- Second, forget this whole idea of contraception as a “basic human right.” Sex may be pleasurable, especially in the context of a life-long, loving relationship; but it’s hardly the stuff around which to build a healthy society.
- Third, remember that the government has done nothing to allay the burden of many really necessary, really expensive drugs. I’m thinking here of a friend whose husband is diabetic, and who must spend nearly $1,000 per month on drugs–not to ensure the ability to engage in sex without consequences, but just to keep the guy alive so he can support and love his family. The same is true for many medical treatments–for heart disease, glaucoma, liver failure, cancer, lupus, asthma, cystic fibrosis, COPD and more.
If you still need some help understanding that sex is not a medical emergency, my friend Katrina Fernandez (The Crescat) lays it out here.