Hobby Lobby Invested In Numerous Abortion And Contraception Products. CC Sleaze

OPINION 4/01/2014 774,145 views

Alan: Given the interlocking tentacles of big business, it is virtually impossible (and quite likely literally impossible) to supervise a retirement fund -- or to invest in any mutual fund -- without actively encouraging the growth of death-dealing industry. This is a lesson waiting to be learned... and begging to be ignored. As America's chapter of the Taliban, Christian conservatives are incapable of conceiving themselves in flagrante delicto and thus see all "the evil" over there - none of it in themselves.

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"The Newsroom: The Taliban Is America's Taliban"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-newsroom-tea-party-is-americas.html

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"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." 

Devout Christian, Blaise Pascal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

(Note: "CC Sleaze" is short for Conservative Christian Sleaze.)

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Hobby Lobby Invested In Numerous Abortion And Contraception Products While Claiming Religious Objection

Rick Ungar

In what just may be the most stunning example of hypocrisy in my lifetime, Mother Jones has uncovered numerous investments on the part of Hobby Lobby’s retirement fund in a wide variety of companies producing abortion and contraception related products.

Hobby Lobby is currently seeking relief from certain contraception benefit requirements of Obamacare in a United States Supreme Court case that promises to be a landmark decision on the rights of corporations and the extension of personal religious protections to corporate entities. In the case of the Hobby Lobby corporation, the company is closely held by the Green family who purport to have strong religious objections to certain types of contraceptive devices and are suing to protect those religious rights.

Remarkably, the contraceptive devices and products that so offend the religious beliefs of this family are manufactured by the very companies in which Hobby Lobby holds a substantial stake via their employee 401(k) plan.

As I suspect many readers will find this as hard to believe and digest as I, the data can be confirmed by reviewing the company’s 2012 Annual Report of Employee Benefit Plan as filed with the Department of Labor.

This according to Mother Jones’ Molly Redden:

Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012 (see above)—three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k).

Redden additionally notes that, in a brief submitted to the Court in support of Hobby Lobby’s position in the case, the company specifically names contraceptive products such as Plan B, Ella, and IUDs as violating their religious beliefs because they work by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus.

According to the Green family, interfering with an already fertilized egg is tantamount to abortion—an act unacceptable to the family and one they refuse to participate in no matter what the Affordable Care Act may require .

However, it turns out that the owners of Hobby Lobby do not appear to have any problem with profiting from the companies that manufacture the very products that so grievously offend their religious principles.

The following is a summation of the companies manufacturing these products that are held by the Hobby Lobby employee retirement plan, as set forth by Ms. Redden’s remarkable reporting:

These companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis ACT +0.43%, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella. Other holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer PFE +1.35%, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer , which manufactures the hormonal IUDs Skyla and Mirena; AstraZeneca AZN +0.66%, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions. Several funds in the Hobby Lobby retirement plan also invested in Aetna AET +1.21% and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell.

When added up, the nine funds holding the stated investments involve three-quarters of Hobby Lobby’s 401(k) assets.

You may be thinking that it must have been beyond Hobby Lobby’s reasonable abilities to know what companies were being invested in by the mutual  funds purchased for the Hobby Lobby 401(k) plans—but I am afraid you would be wrong.

Not only does Hobby Lobby have an obligation to know what their sponsored 401(k) is investing in for the benefit of their employees, it turns out that there are ample opportunities for the retirement fund to invest in mutual funds that are specifically screened to avoid any religiously offensive products.

To avoid supporting companies that manufacture abortion drugs—or products such as alcohol or pornography—religious investors can turn to a cottage industry of mutual funds that screen out stocks that religious people might consider morally objectionable. The Timothy Plan and the Ave Maria Fund, for example, screen for companies that manufacture abortion drugs, support Planned Parenthood, or engage in embryonic stem cell research.

Apparently, Hobby Lobby was either not aware that these options existed (kind of hard to believe for a company willing to take a case to the Supreme Court over their religious beliefs) or simply didn’t care.

For me, this story will forever be filed under the heading of “no good deed goes unpunished”.

While I have disagreed with Hobby Lobby’s legal position in their case before the Supreme Court on a number of levels, I have gone out of my way—both in print and on radio & television—to advise others not to vilify the Greens as individuals just because you might disagree with their position on contraceptive coverage via the Affordable Care Act. I say this because, from what I had previously been able to learn, these were  decent people who have long taken appropriate care of its employees by paying in excess of minimum wage and providing all employees with healthcare benefits.

But to now discover that these people are seeking to avoid their obligation under the law to provide their employees with a contraceptive benefit at the same time they are allowing their 401(k) to invest in—and profit from—these very products is, in my view, completely unforgivable.

For those wondering if the family is personally participating in the 401(k) program, I have been unable to get anyone at Hobby Lobby to confirm or deny the same. However, it would be highly unlikely that, as officers of the company, the Greens would not be participating in the 401(k) plan as they are employees of the corporation.

While these revelations will likely have no impact on the outcome of the case pending in the Supreme Court, the sheer and stunning hypocrisy of these people will forever stain any finding by the Court in favor of Hobby Lobby—should this come to pass.

While I may not agree with the legal position Hobby Lobby has taken in their lawsuit, I always stand in admiration of those willing to fight for their constitutional rights when they believe they are being taken.

Hobby Lobby is entitled to no such admiration—only contempt. You simply can’t say that you will give your all in defense of your closely held beliefs when it suits you while seeking to make money in violation of those beliefs. You also cannot pretend you were simply negligent in learning what investments you hold if you are going to hold yourself out as an example of righteousness.

By setting this perfectly awful example, Hobby Lobby’s hypocrisy will do little to aid—and much to deter—others willing to stand up for the Bill of Rights in the future. All they have accomplished is to provide more air to the cynicism that already envelops the nation, cynicism that exists precisely because of entities like Hobby Lobby.

Contact Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com 

UPDATE- July 1, 2014:

Because of the renewed interest in this article following yesterday’s SCOTUS decision, and the large volume of comments in response to the same, an update appears in order.

I have to say that, while I am more than accustomed to readers taking a dim view of  articles I post and letting their feelings be known in stark detail via the comments section, the comments to this article have been surprisingly misguided and reflective of the reader missing some key points.

Many have noted that, as a 401 (k) plan, the employees (not the Greens) are responsible for making the choices as to what investments their plan choses to participate in (via choosing among the choices provided) and, therefore, I am unfairly blaming the Greens.

First of all, where do you imagine the 401(k) comes from? Rather than falling from the sky like manna, the program is established and set up by management. And who is management? The Greens.

Once established, many of you point out that the program is run by an outside administrator. You are likely correct. Who do you imagine picks that outside administrator? Management. And who is management? The Greens.

Now, many are quick to point out that it is the outside administrator that chooses the funds that will be included in the 401(k) program. Right again. But who gives the administrator the marching orders and parameters as to what funds are acceptable Management. And who is management? The Greens.

And then many are all too fast to point out that the Greens are not benefitting and profiting from the 401(k) investments in the very products they went to SCOTUS to avoid having to provide based on their religious beliefs. Yo argue that it is the employees- not the Greens- who are benefitting. And yet, the Greens ARE employees and, as such, participate in the 401(k) program! While you seem to only view them as the shareholders of the corporation, you forget that they are also employed by the corporation in the most senior management positions! They are, as much as anyone else drawing a paycheck from Hobby Lobby, employees. thus, if the 401(k) is profiting, then the Greens are profiting. And with 75 percent of the funds included holding investments that would fail the Green’s religious test as stated in their SCOTUS brief, I’ll gladly take the bet from anyone who cares to wager that the Greens are not choosing some of these funds in their 401(k).

Finally, and my admitted favorite, some of you like to point out that these investments in companies that offend the Greens, per their SCOTUS case, are a tiny fraction of the total investment so why am I being so unfair to them? This is no doubt true. However, I never understood that the percentage of ownership would be dispositive of the issue of hypocrisy. If this is the case, then I really don’t understand why you are so upset about the provision of Obamacare that required Hobby Lobby to provide these contraceptive products to their employees via health insurance. Why? Because that provision is but atiny fraction of the total impact and requirements of Obamacare! By your logic, it is therefore to be dismissed as no big deal.

So, please stop pretending I don’t understand 401(k) plans, mutual funds, or whatever. Please stop pretending that the Greens are not employees benefiting from the 401(k) program. Please stop pretending that they do not have ultimate authority over what investment fund choices are made available to all employees via the 401(k) plan. And please stop pretending that there are not ample funds out there that are earning at the level of the funds included in the Hobby Lobby 401(k) plan that specifically avoid this sort of investment.

And if convincing yourself that holding only small amounts of investments in companies that make and sell products that offend the religious sensibilities of the Greens-or anyone else-works for you when rationalizing this conflict, knock yourself out. But do not expect me to fall for this.

I welcome even the most personal and offensive criticism (obviously, based on what I’m getting) but would it hurt to think it through just a bit before cutting loose?