Hobby Lobby Still Won't Provide Morning-After Pill
By AP
WASHINGTON, D.C. - An attorney for Hobby Lobby Stores says the arts and crafts chain won't provide the morning-after and week-after pills in its employee insurance plan when the health care mandate takes effect Jan. 1, risking potential fines of $1.3 million a day.
Becket Fund attorney Kyle Duncan says Hobby Lobby's Christian owners consider the emergency contraceptives tantamount to abortion because they can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's womb. He says, "To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs." Attorneys for the government have said the drugs do not cause abortions and that the U.S. has a compelling interest in mandating insurance coverage for them.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied Hobby Lobby's emergency request to block enforcement of the mandate, but said the company may continue its appeal in lower courts. Duncan said the company will do so, but won't provide all the contraceptives the law requires.