OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.–Many Mississippians enjoy shopping at Hobby Lobby for home decor, but what the company is able to do in court may shape the future of the country. The Oklahoma City-based, family-owned business is challenging the Affordable Care Act provision that forces them to provide coverage for the “morning after pill” and other contraceptive drugs that they say is against their religion.
“If every company in this country has the right to exempt itself from any law t doesn’t like, you no longer have a society, you have like, anarchy,” said Barry Lynn, with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a group that says Hobby Lobby should be forced to provide the coverage for its employees because every other business is also having to do it.
On the side of Hobby Lobby is the Beckett Legal Fund, representing the company in court.
“We believe that American families should not give up their religious freedom just because they open up a family business,” said representative Lori Wyndham.
Hobby Lobby says their chain was founded on Biblical principals.
Lynn argues that for profit companies do not have individual religious freedom, as individuals do.
If Hobby Lobby loses, the financial stakes are high. The company could owe an ever-growing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for not offering the coverage.
