After Hobby Lobby: Lib Video Says ‘Religious Extremists’ Taking Away Rights

The wailing, rending of garments and gnashing of teeth on the left over the Hobby Lobby decision has been a breathtaking spectacle – not least because it is based on (at least) two falsehoods. First, that citizens have a sacred right to free deliveries from the Federal Contraceptive Fairy, and that any return to 2009 PS (pre-Sebelius) is an insult to democracy. Second, that the liberal hue and cry is a high-minded stand against theocracy, rather than the screeching of infantilized constituents suddenly denied their government candy.

Case in point: A new video from a pro-abortion “religious” group featured July 1 on the lefty video site Upworthy [1] used a handful of anecdotes to explain ominously that religious people were discriminating against non-religious folk and taking away their God Obama-given rights. The “Coalition for Liberty & Justice,” [2] which made the video, is a pro-choice marriage made in Heaven between the oxymoronic “Catholics for Choice” and the “National Council of Jewish Women.”

It’s fitting that they chose a line drawing motif for a video whose arguments are so two-dimensional. The video erects a giant straw man by claiming “There is no right to discriminate in jobs, healthcare and education.” Over a graphic of a smiling Obama next to an American flag, the narrator explains, “The government expanded access to health insurance and included a provision that every woman would be able to access no-cost birth control.”

The visual shifts to a glowering man holding a sign that just reads “No” as the narrator intones, “But religious extremists oppose this. Citing freedom of religion, they claim that any organization should be able to discriminate against their employees, whether it's a church, a school, or even a business, like Taco Bell. Using bogus arguments about religious freedom to deny women birth control is just the tip of the iceberg.”

So according to the video, free morning-after pills (that is what Hobby Lobby specifically objected to providing) are a civil right. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be surprised.

The video goes on to provide anecdotes of all the other ways sinister (male) religious fanatics are hurting members of favorite liberal grievance groups. Specifically, it goes after Catholic hospitals, which, the narrator says without a trace of irony “serve millions of Americans every year and receive billions in taxpayer funding, but the care isn’t the same as those available in other publicly funded hospitals.” So Catholic hospitals do good work on behalf of millions of people with the blessing of the government. You just can’t get an abortion there. The horror!

Catholics for Choice is a favorite of the left-wing media. Laughably, MSNBC invited the liberal group to represent “the church side” [3] in a discussion on New Mexico’s late term abortion ban last year. CNN similarly has referred to the group in discussing Catholicism [4], as well as a variety of liberal news sites [5].

Of course, turning for opinion on Church doctrine to Catholics for Choice is like turning to a vegetarian for a tasty meatloaf recipe. According to church doctrine, anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion is automatically excommunicated [6] from the Church. Of course, if you’re a nominally Catholic pro-choice politician, you might get off easier with just being refused Communion. [7]

Similarly the National Council of Jewish Women (“NCJW”) is frequently interviewed by the media [8] to represent Jews, though in both Catholic and Jewish tradition, abortion is considered serious sin. 

The day after the Hobby Lobby ruling, Heritage’s Daily Signal interviewed [9] Amy Cotton, Senior Legislative Associate  of the NCJW [10], and learned that she, along with other “reproductive rights” activists, did not even know what drugs Hobby Lobby was contesting. 

The video ends by pleading, “Please help us ensure that the rights of everyone are not traded away to appease extremists.” Yes, because it’s not extreme to force someone to violate their conscience and pony up for products you won’t buy for yourself.