"Thankfully, the justices got it right"

By Tom Quiner

I really liked this letter to the editor which appeared in the Des Moines Register on Tuesday. The letter writer, Kimberly Laube, is a Board Member for Iowans for Life:

“June 30 marked a critical juncture for our nation. On that day, the highest court in the land upheld a vital tenet on which our country was founded: religious liberty.
In Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby, the court made its opinion crystal clear: Citizens do not sacrifice their constitutionally guaranteed rights when they form and operate a family business. The decision was a victory not only for the Green family but for every American who values freedom of religion.
For more than 200 years, our country’s brave men and women have battled, both at home and abroad, to ensure that citizens of every faith would remain free from religious persecution within our borders.
Thankfully, the justices got it right. Their narrow, carefully circumscribed decision deftly balanced the rights of the Green family and the compelling interest of the federal government. However, I caution that this is a partial victory for pro-life advocates. Some of the 16 forms of contraception the Greens will still be required to provide do function, secondarily, as abortifacients.
For the Greens, complying with certain regulations after passage of the Affordable Care Act represented a crisis of conscience. The Greens believe that four of the 20 forms of contraception outlined in the regulations can terminate the life of a fertilized egg.
For the Greens and many Americans, such termination is tantamount to murder. Financing such an act would violate their deeply held religious beliefs. Unfortunately, the arbitrarily defined regulations left them the unsavory “choice” to violate the law or violate their conscience.”