Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. is currently fighting a legal battle in opposition of the Health and Human Services mandate which forces all large employers to offer the morning after pill and week after pill, without co-pay, in their health insurance plan. If Hobby Lobby fails to comply with the HHS mandate, the company will face fines up to $1.3 million per day.
The retail chain, a Christian-owned-and-operated company, currently provides a health care plan to all employees that is compliant with the religious beliefs that the founder, David Green, built the company upon.
“By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow,” David Green, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder, said. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”
According to a news release issued by The Becket Fund religious law firm, Hobby Lobby is the largest and only non-Catholic-owned business to file a lawsuit against the HHS mandate, which criticizes the Obama administration for forcing companies to comply with the regulation despite religious convictions.
Hobby Lobby’s leap of faith, though, has sparked conversation among WTAMU students.
“Through Obama Care, the government is taking away the religious freedom of not only these companies but also of all Americans by forcing them to go against their religious beliefs,” sophomore Cale Bloskas said. “I think that Hobby Lobby has the right to stand up for what their company believes in and not provide a service to their employees that goes against their religious beliefs.”
According to Peter M. Dobelbower, chief legal officer for Hobby Lobby Inc., the chain will continue to fight for their religious rights.
“Hobby Lobby discovered a way to shift the plan year for its employee health insurance, thus postponing the effective date of the mandate for several months,” Dobelbower said. “Hobby Lobby does not provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs in its healthcare plan. Hobby Lobby will continue to vigorously defend its religious liberty and oppose the mandate and any penalties.”
