Hobby Lobby is right
I strongly disagree with Leonard Pitts Jr.’s March 31 column. Hobby Lobby’s case is that it is being forced to be complicit in abortion in violation of its religious liberty. Pitts claims that medical experts disagree. However, the Food and Drug Administration labels on four of the contested birth control products state that they prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus, which makes them abortifacients.
Pitts’ slippery slope argument is not compelling. Each case would be decided on its own merits. Pitts implies that if Hobby Lobby wins, then women would not be able to obtain birth control, but fails to note that they could still inexpensively buy it themselves.
Pitts contends that all Hobby Lobby has to do to avoid this issue is to drop their employee insurance, but fails to mention that this would cost them $26 million per year in fines and would decrease the quality of health care provided to their employees.
If the government wins this case, there is no limit to the moral depravity to which it can force citizens to be complicit. Late-term surgical abortion and euthanasia could be next. That is a slippery slope that is worth worrying about.
John Webb
Hayden