As you probably know, Hobby Lobby's high profile lawsuit to overturn a key provision in Obamacare that requires employers to cover contraception in their employee health plans was recently heard before the US Supreme Court.
The Hobby Lobby line is that they should not be forced to cover emergency contraception because the company's owners – The Green family – thinks those drugs cause abortions, and even though those drugs do not cause abortions, being dumb and not understanding science violates their religious freedom. Or something like that.
As I pointed out last year, the lawsuit shows the hypocrisy of the company:
If Hobby Lobby is such a Christian, anti-abortion and holier-than-thou corporation, why is so much of their shitty, over-priced inventory manufactured in China? If the Green family really believed in the sanctity of life and religious freedom, they probably wouldn’t choose to do business with a country that denies basic human rights and carries out forced abortions. Then again, they need to make enough money to pay their $1.3 million fine, so I guess importing from China is okay. Anything for the sake of a cheap buck or wall ornament or glittery Styrofoam ball, right?
The hypocrisy train doesn't stop there.
In addition to doing business with countries that have shady human rights records, Mother Jones reported yesterday that Hobby Lobby's employee retirement plan holds $73-million in mutual funds that, of course, invest in the manufacturers of emergency contraception and abortion providers.
Here's a recap of the Mother Jones report from The Huffington Post:
The owners of Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned craft supply chain, were so offended by the idea of having to include emergency contraceptives and intrauterine devices in their health insurance plans that they sued the Obama administration and took the case all the way up to the Supreme Court. But Mother Jones reported on Tuesday that the company's retirement plan has invested millions of dollars in the manufacturers of emergency contraception and drugs used to induce abortions.
Hobby Lobby's 401(k) employee retirement plan holds $73 million in mutual funds that invest in multiple pharmaceutical companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and abortion-inducing medications.
The companies Hobby Lobby invests in include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes the Plan B morning-after pill and ParaGard, a copper IUD, as well as Pfizer, the maker of the abortion-inducing drugs Cytotec and Prostin E2. Hobby Lobby's mutual funds also invest in two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in their health care policies.
Hobby Lobby's attorneys argue that the provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires most employers to cover contraception in their health plans infringes on the company's right to exercise religious freedom because the company's owners believe that emergency contraception and IUDs are actually forms of abortion. Medical studies have debunked this claim.
Mother Jones reported that all nine of the mutual funds Hobby Lobby's retirement plan holds include investments that clash with the owners' religious beliefs about abortion.
I think this all but confirms that Hobby Lobby's lawsuit was more of an attempt to scar Obamacare than it was an actual live, laugh, love of religious rights. That's why there's so much hypocrisy on display here. If the Green family really cared about staying true to their beliefs, they would have gone with a vanity mutual fund offering that didn't support the abortion industry:
In their Supreme Court complaint, Hobby Lobby's owners chronicle the many ways in which they avoid entanglements with objectionable companies. Hobby Lobby stores do not sell shot glasses, for example, and the Greens decline requests from beer distributors to back-haul beer on Hobby Lobby trucks.
Similar options exist for companies that want to practice what's sometimes called faith-based investing. To avoid supporting companies that manufacture abortion drugs—or products such as alcohol or pornography—religious investors can turn to a cottage industry of mutual funds that screen out stocks that religious people might consider morally objectionable. The Timothy Plan and the Ave Maria Fund, for example, screen for companies that manufacture abortion drugs, support Planned Parenthood, or engage in embryonic stem cell research. Dan Hardt, a Kentucky financial planner who specializes in faith-based investing, says the performances of these funds are about the same as if they had not been screened. But Hobby Lobby's managers either were not aware of these options or chose not to invest in them.
Busted like a cheap frame.
For more on the absurdity of Hobby Lobby court case, which they will probably win, watch this clip from The Daily Show. It's pretty damn funny:
The Daily Show
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