Help help, they’re being oppressed! Hobby Lobby files federal lawsuit to avoid birth control coverage for employees

Good news and bad news everyone. The good news is that today I get to rage/blog about my favorite topics: reproductive justice, the Christian right’s version of “religious freedom,” and (indirectly) knitting. The bad news is that Hobby Lobby filed a federal lawsuit against the “Obamacare” contraception mandate. As a knitter and reproductive justice activist who has, on occasion, spent more money on yarn than food in a week, this is really upsetting news for me. At least I’ve used their yarn to knit a cozy for my “whore pills” (as Jessie calls them) and for yarnbombing?

Anyway. The owners of Hobby Lobby, the Green family, believe that covering birth control and emergency contraception for their over 13,000 employees in 14 states violates their freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Carly reacting to Hobby Lobby “losing their freedom”

LOLOLOLOLOL GOOD ONE GUYS

The lawsuit is justified by the Greens because their “religious beliefs forbid them from participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and devices.” This situation would be hilarious if it weren’t actually true, given the fact that birth control pills and emergency contraception are not “abortion causing drugs.” Out of the 13,000 Hobby Lobby employees, I doubt all are Evangelical Christians like the Green family. I’m sure that many of them want or need access to contraceptives for a variety of equally valid reasons regardless of their faith, or lack thereof.

I feel like I am constantly having to say this in other posts I’ve written, but apparently it needs to be said again. Christians are not being oppressed just because they aren’t allowed to force everyone around them to live by the same rules they do through legislation.

Being unable to deny your employees access to vital reproductive health care is NOT restricting your religious freedom or freedom of speech. Hobby Lobby is an Evangelical Christian organization based out of Oklahoma. They are the majority. In a country that has an establishment clause in its constitution to prevent theocracy. Hobby Lobby employees shouldn’t have to choose between healthcare and employment, and NO ONE should have to live by Christian theology if they don’t want to.

Green family, you don’t have to worry about being attacked because you aren’t a Christian. You don’t know what it’s like to have your home vandalized for not being Christian, to be afraid to disclose your upbringing with a new acquaintance for fear of conversion attempts, alienation, or worse, violence. And not everyone has the class privilege to “just work somewhere else” if they can’t afford their prescriptions and their employer refuses to cover them in their insurance plan. Comparing insurance coverage to these examples of religious oppression is just sickening. You have no idea what having your religious freedom violated feels like. You don’t get to use your religion as a free pass to do whatever you want.

Carly has a crush on Dana Scully and loves cartoons, if you couldn’t already tell. She really wishes there was an ethical way for her to access affordable yarn, because dammit if Hobby Lobby is getting any more of her money.