Abstract
Chapter 5 analyzes the discourse of the pro-life movement surrounding the Hobby Lobby ruling, focusing particularly on the increase in the use of freedom of religion arguments. The ruling has been framed as a victory to the freedom of individuals against government intervention, promoting libertarian values and legislation. The focus of the pro-life movement on religious liberty expands the topics that are at the center of the pro-life mission, while broadening its base of support to people who are concerned about freedom from governmental control more generally. This framing also promotes the concept of human rights as negative rights, while also challenging the separation between abortion and contraception.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, similar arguments that classify religious liberty as a private matter appear in the right-wing arguments against same-sex marriage, discussed further in Chap. 6.
- 2.
While some activists focused on religious freedom, others continued to argue for the fetus-centered and women-centered arguments, using signs such as “Life Counts” and “Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.”
- 3.
While the argument about the link between the individual and the business is central to the discourse, the legal aspect of this link is more complex; “Perhaps the most significant problem with this ‘look to the people behind the corporation’ argument is that it is in some tension with corporate law. One of the purposes of the formal, separate entity in corporate law is precisely to permit courts to disregard those human beings behind the corporate form” (Piety 2015: 113).
- 4.
The HHS justifies the employer mandate—the inclusion of all FDA-approved forms of a birth control in the list of basic, preventive services required at no cost—as an attempt to ensure equality for women, through prohibiting the exclusion of these services by employers and insurance plans. Further, the requirement to cover these preventive services is designed to keep costs low as well as promote general health and well-being (HHS Website 2013).
- 5.
Another issue that is raised by some authors but not fully developed here is the argument that complicity-based claims are not well developed or explained, thus making it difficult to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate arguments on this issue (Sepinwall 2015).
- 6.
Stolzenberg argues that positive concept of money is linked with positive concepts of rights. In this case, however, the positive concept of money is accompanied by a negative concept of rights, framing liberty as the freedom from, and the responsibility of the government to protect—rather than provide—this freedom (2014).
- 7.
In general, slogans emphasizing religious liberty received more attention in the media, and seemed to appear more often in demonstrations.
- 8.
While the focus of the pro-life movement on religious freedom—of employers as well as anyone else—may lead to limiting access of women to contraception and abortion, this outcome is not an explicit part of the discourse, and may be framed as an unintended result of a situation in which many people exercise their freedom of religion, thus making access to these services more difficult.
- 9.
At the same time, Ginsburg argues that the majority ruling “elides entirely the distinction between the sincerity of a challenger’s religious belief and the substantiality of the burden placed on the challenger” (573 U.S. ___, at 22).
- 10.
Despite this framing of the issue, there have been some attempts of legislators to limit the ability of women to use certain contraceptives. For example, a number of states restrict minors from accessing contraception without parental notification or consent (26 states and the District of Columbia) (Guttmacher 2015a). Further, personhood bills and initiatives were considered in seven states, measures that would recognize zygotes (a fertilized ovum, which is not yet an embryo) as legal persons. This recognition would prohibit IUDs and most hormonal forms of birth control, in effect criminalizing some of the most common and effective forms of birth control used by women in the USA today (Guttmacher 2015b). These cases of course do not correspond with this claim, a tension that can be explained as between the more libertarian argument of limited regulations and free market, and the conservative aim to limit the use of abortifacients and to require certain moral behavior from employees.
- 11.
- 12.
Another example of the expansion of the concept of religious liberty, including the acts that are considered to violate this freedom, is the dozens of lawsuits against the accommodation form for exempt religious organizations. The plaintiffs in these cases oppose the requirement to notify the government of that their employers are not covered for contraceptive services, this in order to initiate the process in which they get covered by the federal government. The claim that this notification is already a violation of religious liberty introduces a broad definition of this right, since any type of action that may result on coverage of contraceptives is “complicity-based sin.”
- 13.
S. 1204 was introduced in the 113th session by Senator Tom Coburn, although the Susan B. Anthony List’s Website lists Senator Deb Fischer—with Representative Diane Black—as leaders on this bill. Fischer is listed as one of 21 cosponsors on the bill (S. 1204, 2014).
- 14.
A challenge to this claim has been raised by Gedicks (2015), who calls attention to the fact that in practice, the ruling promotes a government-funded option as a less restrictive option.
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Hagel, A.V., Mansbach, D. (2016). Between Conservatism and Libertarianism: Pro-life Strategy After the ACA. In: Reproductive Rights in the Age of Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53952-6_5
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