Out actor George Takei has criticized a
Supreme Court decision declaring that some for-profit companies may
block their employees' access to certain birth control methods.
Hobby Lobby challenged the Affordable
Care Act's (ACA) requirement that insurance health plans include
coverage for FDA-approved contraception, arguing that the law
violates the company's religious freedom.
(Related: LGBT
groups “troubled” by Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision.)
“In this case, the owners happen to
be deeply Christian; one wonders whether the case would have come out
differently if a Muslim-run chain business attempted to impose Sharia
law on its employees,” Takei
said in a blog post. “As many have pointed out, Hobby Lobby is
the same company that invests in Pfizer and Teva Pharmaceuticals,
makers of abortion inducing-drugs and the morning after pill. It also
buys most of its inventory from China, where forced abortions are
common. The hypocrisy is galling.”
“Hobby Lobby is not a church. It's a
business – and a big one at that. Businesses must and should be
required to comply with neutrally crafted laws of general
applicability. Your boss should not have a say over your healthcare.
Once the law starts permitting exceptions based on 'sincerely held
religious beliefs' there's no end to the mischief and discrimination
that will ensue. Indeed, this is the same logic that certain
restaurants and hotels have been trying to deploy to allow
proprietors to refuse service to gay couples.”
Takei urged readers to boycott the
national craft store chain.
“While we work to overturn this
decision by legislation, people of good conscious should BOYCOTT any
for-profit business, including Hobby Lobby, which chooses to impose
its religious beliefs on its employees. The only way such companies
ever learn to treat people with decency and tolerance is to hit them
where it counts – in their pocketbooks. I won't be shopping there,
and women everywhere should exercise their right of protest and
refuse to shop there as well,” Takei said.