Hobby Lobby May Close All 500+ Stores in 41 States

By: David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.

But now, our government threatens to change all of that.

A new government healthcare mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance.

Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs.

If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.

So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business.

Source

I'm gonna have to support their position here. As much as I hate to see a few thousand more jobs lost to this ridiculous new health insurance program, I'm happy to see that at least SOMEONE is taking a stand.

No Christian should be forced to pay for someone's contraception. Period.

This is just one more example of how the federal government's over reach is ripping our country to shreds.

reply to post by Bone75


Now what am I gonna do?

OH NO

I hate to see this happen,

Standing for one's principles.

How rare.

*applause*

Can't wait to see the folks come on here and tear him to shreds. . . . .

reply to post by Bone75


I totally disagree with you.

Screw em! For a party that advocates for getting government out of our business, they sure as hell are interested in retaining their own perceived right to get into our business.

Let them close their doors, I'm sure the other hobby stores around America will be more than happy to fill the gap.

It's their business. They did build that. No one compels them to keep operating it counter to what they believe is ethical.

Just because there is infrastructure available doesn't mean that Hobby Lobby will continue to exist without them to run it.

I guess Obama is caught in another lie.

It's too bad because I like working with their in-house brand of acrylic yarns.

reply to post by Flatfish


Well I suppose we should just move to an entirely centrally planned and government run economy then because the moment a person does not have the right to run their business as they see fit, we are definitely no longer anything resembling a free market. Why not let Obama build that as he claims?

reply to post by beezzer


Obama did not win one county in Oklahoma in last election.Please view "Oklahoma did it anyway" available on video,You Know where.The tide has turned.Hobby Lobby is based out of OKC.

reply to post by Bone75


He is not running a religious institution, so he cannot claim a religious exemption on the simple task of providing a health-care insurance provider who would provide legal contraceptives on their plan. Instead, he wants to hurt each and every person working for him by picking up his marbles and going home.

What a sore loser. And if he so opposed to providing adequate health care for his employees, maybe he should sell his company to someone who would, thus saving the jobs of everyone who has stayed loyal to him.

reply to post by Flatfish


No one is making you work for them to give them the ability to get into your rights. The government is FORCING this on EVERYONE. This is just about letting a company run the same way it has been running in the past and not forcing them to provide something they don't have to provide.

reply to post by Aleister


And everyone who takes a job there knows the score.

Everyone willfully ignores that places who do this provide plans that cover contraceptives in the event that they become medically necessary. They just don't cover them for birth control purposes. And nothing prevents an employee from getting a prescription from her doctor for contraceptives; she just has to pay for them herself.

Of course, I understand how the $4-$9/month is just too much ... In the leftist's world, everything they don't want to pay for should be free (paid for by someone else).

This is not a major imposition, and no one forces anyone to work there.

reply to post by Aleister


How long before they tell you how many kids you can have?

I've got a good idea. How about we teach people how to use condoms and be responsible adults/teens and we wouldn't even be worried about these drugs. Good for Hobby Lobby! I believe it is utterly ridiculous for the government to be a pill pusher.

reply to post by Aleister


There are PLENTY of adequate plans that don't cover BC or emergency contraceptives. You would probably be surprised how many DON'T cover them now, more often then not most private health care plans don't cover the emergency contraceptive ,or if they do, it is like 5 dollars off.
So it is not him refusing to care for his employees, he was paying them 80% above min wage... This is him standing up for the right to run a company the way he wants.

Looking in from the outside here in Canada.......Things seem really really bad to the south of us.

Wishing you all the best but after years of ATS we expect the worst of the worst.

Seems to us you have yourselves a self imploding Government intent on killing all jobs that may be left there.

Regards, Iwinder & YogaGinns

reply to post by Bone75


Oh my brain.



There's a zillion other regulations on the books in this country for businesses but somehow this one here is a deal breaker? BS.

And they are basing their decision on an assumption that someone "MIGHT" take one of these pills.

I find it highly ironic that these guys are using their first amendment right to take away the right of someone else to make a choice about their life.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Your rights do not give you the right to take away the rights of others. That your rights begin where my rights end and vice versa.

And this sets a precedent. Christians can say no to contraceptives. Now can Jews refuse to employ people because they aren't circumcised?

Sremmos80
reply to post by Aleister

 

There are PLENTY of adequate plans that don't cover BC or emergency contraceptives. You would probably be surprised how many DON'T cover them now, more often then not most private health care plans don't cover the emergency contraceptive ,or if they do, it is like 5 dollars off.
So it is not him refusing to care for his employees, he was paying them 80% above min wage... This is him standing up for the right to run a company the way he wants.

Oh, not anymore, they're all substandard now. Obamacare saw to that.

Stormdancer777
reply to post by Bone75

 

Now what am I gonna do?

OH NO

I hate to see this happen.

Don't worry, I'm sure Walmart and Dollar General will be expanding their crafts departments soon. And if its the jobs that worries you, I hear folks will soon be able to flip burgers for $15 an hour.

This is also a man that closes his stores on Sunday so that the employees can go to church with their families. Good for him for sticking to his beliefs.

reply to post by Sremmos80


I'm not that read up on the American law. I thought the law said that contraceptives had to be covered by what people call obamacare, and that the problem was that he didn't want to do that. Does the law say that or not is the question, and if he doesn't have to sign up to a plan which covers them, then I don't understand why he's threatening to close down all of his stores.

grey580
reply to post by Bone75

 

And this sets a precedent. Christians can say no to contraceptives. Now can Jews refuse to employ people because they aren't circumcised?

edit on 3-2-2014 by grey580 because: (no reason given)

That's the argument in a nutshell. Or close to it (lol).

reply to post by grey580


They are not taking away there rights, they are simply saying they will not pay for these things. IMO.