Could the Hobby Lobby be a open door to a Roe v Wade challenge?

[diabeticman]

IF Hobby Lobby wins and are able to deny contraceptives what other things aspects of health care could be challenge?

[Freddie]

1. I see more "religious exemptions"

Jehovah's Witness employer won't cover blood transfusions. Scientology employer won't cover mental health care. Christian Science employer won't cover anything but prayer. Or it could just stop with contraception because it's really all about controlling women, not that other stuff.

[davidn3600]

3. Blood transfusions may be considered a medical necessity

Preventing a pregnancy isn't medically necessary to survive.

So it's not likely a court would view a Jehovah's Witness argument with equal weight.

[Freddie]

4. Doctors now recommend a woman wait 2 full years between pregnancies

For the optimal outcome for herself and the baby. Thus the "preventive care" mandate.

100 or so years ago, during the long legal fight to make birth control legal in the first place, the argument was made that contraception helped prevent women dying in childbirth, a very common occurrence then. The judge dismissed that argument with "that's the chance she takes when she has sex (with her husband!)". I'd really like to think we've progressed beyond that mindset.

[davidn3600]

8. The case doesnt stop a woman from getting birth control

It would not make birth control illegal.

This is about whether it should be for free under an employer health plan.

[Lars39]

5. "Preventing a pregnancy isn't medically necessary

to survive." For some women it is.

[HereSince1628]

2. I anticipate SCOTUS to rule that corporate persons can have religious beliefs

Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2013, 10:38 AM - Edit history (1)

that the state cannot violate. And it will be a way to deny whatever the boards of directors think saves them a penny.

Peace and dividends be upon you.

In the name of the founder, the stocks, and the invisible hand.


Amen.

[spanone]

10. then the 'religious' corporation like the koch bros. will file for tax exemptions

on religious grounds of course

[HereSince1628]

12. Yes, and it would probably be malfeasance if they didn't.

[etherealtruth]

11. With the current court it is a sad liklihood

I see a ruling like that extending far past healthcare

[HereSince1628]

13. Me, too.

[JoePhilly]

6. No Viagra for (old) unmarried guys. Threaten to take away their Viagra.

[Yo_Mama]

7. No - the right to abortion is not linked to the ability to get a corporation to pay for it

The Hobby Lobby case is not about whether employees have the right to use contraception, but whether the corporation can be fined for not providing certain types of contraception free of charge through insurance.

Note that there is already an exemption provided to Catholic church entities in the regs.

Constitutional rights are not dependent on funding mandates, and never have been.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. I don't see a possible connection.

RvW is about people seeking a service on their own terms. Hobby Lobby never had standing to challenge RvW, hence they never did. If the ACA has somehow mystically provided the grounds to make an employer exclusively responsible for an employee's medical decisions than that is a flaw in the ACA.

[dembotoz]

14. if a corporation was headed by a faith healer-couldn't the insurance prem go to his church

easy way to hit up employees for a tithe

[OmahaBlueDog]

15. I have a modest proposal. OK, follow me here -- the SCOTUS ruled that the ACA was a tax

...so if Hobby Lobby gets out of paying a portion of this tax because it offends their faith, then the rest of us should just start forming non-denominational mega churches founded on the belief that war is wrong, and then refuse to pay any portion of any federal tax related to defense, or to paying deficits run up to pay defense costs.

If we're going down the pick-and-choose taxation road, this is where we end up.

[JustAnotherGen]

17. I like this idea!

[JHB]

16. What is more likely is campaigns to pressure employers to drop coverage...

...much like what was done to get Komen for the Cure to drop support of Planned Parenthood cancer screening programs: organized letter-writing, combined with anti-choice movement-friendly executives & owners.

It may not work on a national level, but it's certainly possible regionally.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Not deny-- deny free contraceptives. But...

I was under the impression that for-profit companies owned by nonprofits were treated the same as any other company. They pay taxes and are subject to the same regulatory strictures as anyone else.

While not a religious situation, NYU once owned Muellers pasta (bequeathed to them by the owner) and afik Muellers didn't get any special benefits from being owned by a school.

My argument would be that Hobby Lobby is not a 1st Amendment case simply because the business has nothing to do with belief or the activities of the church and is not an essential part of it.