Currently, the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether or not to allow businesses to choose which parts of the Affordable Care Act they provide to employees based on the company’s religious standing. If the Supreme Court decides to allow this, businesses and corporations would be granted the ability to pick and choose which health care they provide to their employees under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 in the future.
Due to the family-run business Hobby Lobby’s religious beliefs, they do not want to provide contraceptives such as Plan B or IUDs to its employees.
On March 25, the U.S. Supreme Court heard testimony for the Hobby Lobby vs Sebelius case. Kathleen Sebelius has been the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services since 2009.
The Hobby Lobby website says, “We believe it is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured. He has been faithful in the past and we trust him for our future.”
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley has been vocal the case. On April 4, Merkley came to BRING Recycling in Eugene and spoke along with BRING Recycling’s Executive Director Julie Daniel and employee Carolyn Stein.
“Our bosses don’t need to be in our bedrooms,” Merkley said.
Outside of just the personal interference, others take issue to the interference of health care decisions in general.
“I don’t consider it the purview of the business to make health care decisions for employees,” Daniel said. “Access to birth control is a basic right. I wouldn’t consider offering an insurance policy that did not include it.”
Oregon has it’s own health care benefits that could be affected if the court rules in favor of Hobby Lobby.
“They would invalidate the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, but probably also invalidate the provisions of our Oregon law that have made access to contraceptives universally available,” Merkley said. “It has been extremely well received that our policies offer basic preventative care. To have the Supreme Court potentially reach out and say that a boss can dictate essentially both their religious values on their employees and violate this fundamental access to preventative care just seems wrong.”
Merkley encourages people to take action in this issue.
“It’s time for folks to stand up and say that we should not live in a world where our bosses determine whether or not they have access to inoculation, whether or not we have treatment for HIV/AIDS and whether or not we have access to contraceptives. That, in a for-profit organization, to have the board of directors dictating health care decisions for employees is wrong,” Merkley said.
The University of Oregon Health Center offers contraceptives to its students.
“As a comprehensive health center we want our students to be well informed about their choices regarding contraception,” said Health Promotion specialist Renee Mulligan.
The health center sells Plan B without a prescription and Ella, which is a pill similar to Plan B. It offers a longer window of opportunity to prevent pregnancy with a prescription and provides HIV testing, HPV vaccines, pregnancy testing, STI testing and free latex barriers including condoms. Appointments for students are $15.