Corporations are people, just like us

Don’t they have mothers, sisters, daughters, wives?

Don’t they understand that our country was founded on the concept of separating religion from government and assuring that everyone is free to choose their own form of worship without the state favoring one over the other?

And what about the American ideal of personal freedom to make our own decisions without interference from a tyrannical “father knows best” government?

Many Americans rise up in revolutionary mode at the merest hint of closing the infamous gun show loophole allowing gun sales without a background check, citing their individual rights under the Second Amendment. Others protest what they see as overzealous governmental regulation meant to keep our water clean and our air fit to breathe. Do these same people really see no harm in the government allowing corporations, family-held or not, determining what kind of contraceptives their female employees can use?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to allow Hobby Lobby and other corporations to determine what specific reproductive health care products their female employees can have is appalling and infuriating. The decision was based on the majority interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, stating government may not “substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.” In essence, the justices decided a corporation’s owners’ religious beliefs are more compelling than its employees’ personal health choices.

This kind of action was precisely the reason progressives objected so strongly when the Nevada Senate passed Senate Bill 192 in 2013, with bipartisan support. The 14 Senators who voted for the bill insisted it was just a harmless update of the federal religious freedom act and would not be used to deny women reproductive health care or allow businesses to discriminate against gays or other groups of people they found objectionable. The Hobby Lobby decision and the Arizona experience with its Senate Bill 1062 clearly prove otherwise.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a disturbing dissent of the Court’s 5-4 decision, pointedly stating, “The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield.”

Ginsburg said the decision opens the door to corporations deciding their religion prevents them from financially underwriting other health concerns in the company health plan: “Would the exemption … extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations[?]”

Indeed, where does it stop?

As a woman, it’s hard not to take this decision by all male jurists personally. Hobby Lobby doesn’t seem to have any problem supporting male sexual health since the owners apparently don’t object to Viagra or vasectomies. Their religious objections don’t extend to the company’s investment decisions either, since their retirement plan has holdings in companies that manufacture contraception.

The bottom line is, no corporate overlord should come between a woman and her doctor when it comes to personal health decisions. Corporations should not be allowed to pick and choose the health care products their insurance will cover based on religious beliefs of any kind. Female workers should not have their individual rights infringed upon by a corporation’s “religious views.”

While I’ve never entered the doors of a Hobby Lobby, I imagine its customer base is primarily female due to the focus on crafts and home accents, which makes their battle against women’s health all the more galling. Are women going to continue to patronize a company so focused on denying their rights? Perhaps the best way to fight back against such a corporation is through the profit catastrophe of an empty store.

I do know it’s a tragic day in America when our Supreme Court chooses corporate religious dogma over the personal health care choices of half the population.