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" #HobbyLobby is about to start trending on Twitter once again. Why? Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. It&amp;#039;s a major case for those concerned about women&amp;#039;s rights and access to healthcare, as well as those worried about religious freedom. A ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby could allow future and existing laws to be questioned on religious grounds and has some \u2014including the LGBT community\u2014worried that a win could be a slippery slope that could lead to discrimination. Sound like it touches on every sensitive issue in America right now? Yup, that&amp;#039;s about the size of it. Here&amp;#039;s a breakdown of what&amp;#039;s at stake: The issue:  Called the &amp;quot;contraception mandate,&amp;quot; a specific part of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare, also abbreviated as ACA) says that employers of a certain size must provide birth control coverage for their employees.  Hobby Lobby, a privately-held, family-run company with 13,000 employees that owns a chain of craft stores, objects to specific types of birth control (Plan B, Ella, and IUDs). Hobby Lobby&amp;#039;s owners feel that these specific types of birth control cause abortion (despite the fact that every major health organization in the world says they don&amp;#039;t), and claims forcing the company to pay to cover them is a violation of the company&amp;#039;s religious beliefs. Can a company HAVE religious beliefs? Well, that&amp;#039;s also up for discussion in the context of these cases. Hobby Lobby&amp;#039;s stance:  Hobby Lobby cites the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 which says that the government &amp;quot;shall not substantially burden a person&amp;#039;s exercise of religion&amp;quot; without &amp;quot;a compelling governmental interest.&amp;quot; They&amp;#039;re saying that a for-profit company should be allowed to deny its employees coverage of contraceptives to which they&amp;#039;re entitled by federal law, based on the religious objections of the corporation&amp;#039;s owners. Other cases in lower courts have been upheld using this same argument, and they hope the Supreme Court will settle the question in their favor once and for all. (The Supreme Court will also hear arguments from furniture company Conestoga Wood Specialties today.) The government&amp;#039;s stance: The official word from the White House is that they believe &amp;quot;this requirement is lawful and essential to women&amp;#039;s health&amp;quot; and believes the Supreme Court will ultimately agree. They&amp;#039;ve compromised on the contraceptive mandate for religious organizations before but maintain that &amp;quot;health care decisions are made between a woman and her doctor.&amp;quot; A statement from the White House continues: &amp;quot;The President believes that no one, including the government or for-profit corporations, should be able to dictate those decisions to women.&amp;quot; Since the ACA doesn&amp;#039;t require individual company owners to personally provide coverage they object to by allowing them to place that responsibility on the corporate entity, supporters feel the current situation makes more than enough allowances.   How this affects Hobby Lobby&amp;#039;s workers: Hobby Lobby used to cover the specific drugs in question, before bringing this suit (a weakness in their case, in the opinion of some observers) so their employees have already experienced a bit of upheaval. In the end, employees of Hobby Lobby could end up with either a limited healthcare plan, or the company could opt to pay a fine and stop providing healthcare entirely (actually a cheaper option than funding a group healthcare plan), requiring employees to purchase their own healthcare through the ACA exchange.  How to explain it to a guy:  &amp;quot;Remember when we talked about me going on birth control? Imagine if we had to pay out of pocket for the kind we decided was right for us even while we kept paying for health insurance because my company&amp;#039;s CEO doesn&amp;#039;t like a particular kind of medication.&amp;quot;  How to explain it to a Democrat:  &amp;quot;Among all women who are sexually active, 99% of them use some form of contraception at some point. Two-thirds of women hope Hobby Lobby loses, and numerous other groups, including the LGBT community and even religious groups stand with them. So who is Hobby Lobby fighting for? Oh yeah, a bunch of old white guys who have never and will never use prescription contraceptives. Sure, they might believe in God and religious freedoms, but since the company complied with the law to begin with, some say this is part of a greater effort to undermine the Affordable Care Act. To win this case, Hobby Lobby is going to have to prove that their religious beliefs are not only sincere, but that this law poses a real threat to those beliefs.&amp;quot; How to explain it to a Republican: &amp;quot;Is personal freedom a priority for you? Because there&amp;#039;s nothing more personal than the relationship between an individual and their doctor. Conservatives definitely agree with that\u2014not being able to keep your specific doctor was one of the key reasons the GOP objected to the ACA in the first place. And one of the provisions Hobby Lobby is fighting is one that covers &amp;quot;education and counseling.&amp;quot; Your doctor would have to choose between getting paid by your insurance company and talking to you honestly about certain forms of contraception or even general discussions about family planning. Not great for a doctor&amp;#039;s business, and not great for individuals who are exercising personal responsibility. And yes, religious liberty is extremely important, but it&amp;#039;s possible to support that and still reject this case. Not to mention, if corporations are no different than people, then executives are vulnerable to a lot of legal action, which is bad for business in America.&amp;quot; Related: The Birth Control Pill Has Become A Widely Prescribed Cure-All...But What About the Drawbacks? Related: Why Your Birth Control is in Danger (And Why We Can Laugh About It) Related: What Sonia Sotomayor Did to Your Birth Control While You Were Partying "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a14103/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-hobby-lobby-case/>