The
owners of Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned craft supply chain, were so offended
by the idea of having to include emergency contraceptives and intrauterine
devices in their health insurance plans that they sued the Obama administration
and took the case all the way up to the Supreme Court. But Mother Jones reported on Tuesday that the company's retirement plan has
invested millions of dollars in the manufacturers of emergency contraception
and drugs used to induce abortions.
Hobby Lobby's 401(k) employee retirement plan holds
$73 million in mutual funds that invest in multiple pharmaceutical companies
that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and
abortion-inducing medications.
The companies Hobby Lobby invests in include Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes the Plan B morning-after pill and
ParaGard, a copper IUD, as well as Pfizer, the maker of the abortion-inducing
drugs Cytotec and Prostin E2. Hobby Lobby's mutual funds also invest in two
health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and
emergency contraception in their health care policies.
Hobby Lobby's attorneys argue
that the provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires most employers to
cover contraception in their health plans infringes on the company's right to
exercise religious freedom because the company's owners believe that emergency
contraception and IUDs are actually forms of abortion. Medical studies have debunked this claim.
Mother Jones reported that all nine of the mutual
funds Hobby Lobby's retirement plan holds include investments that clash with
the owners' religious beliefs about abortion.
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