Hobby Lobby files appeal in battle against ObamaCare contraception provisions
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Hobby Lobby Stores has appealed a federal judge’s decision denying the craft supply chain’s request to not provide employees with insurance that covers morning-after and week-after birth control pills, as mandated by the ObamaCare law.
The Christian-owned company asked for relief in the face of fines they say could reach $1 million a day for not providing the coverage.
The appeal was filed Tuesday in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal judge in Oklahoma on Monday denied the owners’ request for a temporary injunction against the provisions of the Obama administration's health law.
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The chain's appeal states in part that Chief Executive Officer David Green his family in less than six weeks “must either violate their faith by covering abortion-causing drugs or be exposed to severe penalties -- including fines of up to $1.3 million per day, annual penalties of about $26 million and exposure to private suits.”
The Oklahoma City-based company and a sister company, Mardel, sued the government in September, claiming the mandate violates the owners' religious beliefs. The owners contend the morning-after and week-after birth control pills are tantamount to abortion because they can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's womb. They also object to providing coverage for certain kinds of intrauterine devices.
The decision was made by U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton, in a 28-page ruling.
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At a hearing earlier this month, a government lawyer said the drugs do not cause abortions and that the U.S. has a compelling interest in mandating insurance coverage for them.
In his ruling, Heaton said churches and other religious organizations have been granted constitutional protection from the birth-control provisions, but Hobby Lobby and Mardel “are not religious organizations."
"Plaintiffs have not cited, and the court has not found, any case concluding that secular, for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion," the ruling also stated.
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Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said before the appeal: "Every American, including family business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their religious beliefs."
Hobby Lobby is the largest business to file a lawsuit against the mandate.
The company calls itself a "biblically founded business" and is closed on Sundays. Founded in 1972, the company now operates more than 500 stores in 41 states and employs more than 13,000 full-time employees who are eligible for health insurance coverage. The company, which is self-insured, has said it will face a daily $1.3 million fine beginning Jan. 1 if it ignores the law.