Debate continues to rage over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, issued Monday. But Mother Jones uncovered some interesting information that makes the “closely held” company’s hypocrisy months ago.
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on Monday says that for-profit businesses in which at least 50 percent of stock is held by five or fewer people, such as family-owned businesses, are exempt from requirements in the Affordable Health Care Act that they cover certain kinds of contraception for their female employees in their health benefits packages. The owners of Hobby Lobby, David Green and family, claimed that having to cover such contraceptives for female Hobby Lobby employees violated their personal religions beliefs against abortion.
But as Mother Jones points out in its article, posted online back in April:
“Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012 — three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit — show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k).
“Several of the mutual funds in Hobby Lobby’s retirement plan have stock holdings in companies that manufacture the specific drugs and devices that the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, is fighting to keep out of Hobby Lobby’s health care policies: the emergency contraceptive pills Plan B and Ella, and copper and hormonal intrauterine devices.”
