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In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear an appeal of the Hobby Lobby case, the issue of whether corporations in the U.S. can use their religious beliefs to limit access to abortion came to a head at a conference in New York on Sunday.
On one side were women’s groups and abortion rights activists — as well as many who are not as passionate about the issue — who spoke out against the Hobby Lobby decision and the need for the U.S. government to legislate the issue from the bench.
On the other side were prominent Christian-right activists who spoke about the necessity of an expansive religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act.
I had the opportunity to be at the event, held at the headquarters of One Voice, a conservative organization dedicated to the “unified political campaign” against abortion and gay marriage.
What I saw at the conference mirrored what I had seen at the March for Life. But it was different — both in its makeup and in its message.
The event was organized by Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, who has been a leader in the campaign for the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
On the other side of the issue was a contingent that consisted of well-known Christian-right activists such as Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, televangelist the Rev. Robert Jeffress, Alliance Defending Freedom president and CEO Wayne Besen, and a number of pro-life leaders, including Dr. James Dobson and Mike Huckabee.
The event occurred on the heels of an interview Dobson gave to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” in which he was asked whether he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the appeal of the Hobby Lobby case.
“I believe that they ignored the law and the will of the people,” Dobson said of the justices. “I think they ignored God and common sense and they are just going to continue ignoring it, ignoring this thing that is so wrong.”
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