Disrupt with Karen Finney, Nov 30, 2013

I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around the concept that the Hobby Lobby just successfully got the Supreme Court to hear:

The Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases involving for-profit corporations. Among the plaintiffs is Hobby Lobby, Inc. a nationwide chain of about 500 arts and crafts stores.

David Green and his family are the owners and say their Christian beliefs clash with parts of the law's mandates for comprehensive coverage.

They say some of the drugs that would be provided prevent human embryos from being implanted in a woman's womb, which the Greens equate to abortion.

The privately held company does not object to funding other forms of contraception -- such as condoms and diaphragms -- for their roughly 13,000 employees, which Hobby Lobby says represent a variety of faiths.

Lord, save me from men who don't understand the biology of women's bodies and think that they have the right to legislate or adjudicate from that point of ignorance.

Without getting deep into a lecture on the physiology of the female reproductive system, let me just state that women's reproductive health is far more than simply pregnancy. It is women's health. While it is true that there is an abortifacient to birth control pills (and we really need to give these pills another name), the pill is supposed to trick the female body into not ovulating in the first place. If ovulation does take place, the pill, by virtue of raising the hormone levels to mimic pregnancy levels, prevents implantation of the egg. That is how the birth control facet works.

But women use the manipulation of their hormone levels for far more than simply avoiding pregnancy. In fact, a majority of women (58 percent) use contraceptives for therapeutic reasons as well as birth control:

The study—based on U.S government data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)—revealed that after pregnancy prevention (86%), the most common reasons women use the pill include reducing cramps or menstrual pain (31%); menstrual regulation, which for some women may help prevent migraines and other painful “side effects” of menstruation (28%); treatment of acne (14%); and treatment of endometriosis (4%). Additionally, it found that some 762,000 women who have never had sex use the pill, and they do so almost exclusively (99%) for noncontraceptive reasons.

Menstrual-related disorders and irregular periods are particularly common during adolescence. Not surprisingly, the study found that teens aged 15–19 who use the pill are more likely to do so for non-contraceptive purposes (82%) than for birth control (67%). Moreover, 33% of teen pill users report using oral contraceptive pills solely for noncontraceptive purposes.

Many of these therapeutic uses will actually assist women in ensuring their fertility in the future, as one of the long-term effects of endometriosis and irregular cycles can result in infertility, not to mention several kinds of reproductive cancers.

So while David Green thinks he's actually saving babies, he's not. He's dooming women that work for him. All in the name of his religious beliefs, whether or not his employees share them. All for his ignorance of how women's bodies work.

Why does Hobby Lobby hate women?