By Jonah Goldberg
Monday, December 02, 2013
Maybe someone can explain to me how, exactly,
conservatives are the aggressors in the culture war? In the conventional
narrative of American politics, conservatives are obsessed with social issues.
They want to impose their values on everyone else. They want the government
involved in your bedroom. Those mean right-wingers want to make "health
care choices" for women.
Now consider last week's decision by the U.S. Supreme
Court to consider two cases stemming from Obamacare: Conestoga Wood Specialties
v. Sebelius and Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores. Democratic politicians and
their fans on social media went ballistic almost instantly. That's hardly
unusual these days. But what's revealing is that the talking points are all
wrong.
Suddenly, the government is the hero for getting deeply
involved in the reproductive choices of nearly every American, whether you want
the government involved or not. The bad guy is now your boss who, according to
an outraged Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would be free to keep you from
everything from HIV treatment to vaccinating your children if Hobby Lobby has
its way. Murray and the White House insist that every business should be
compelled by law to protect its employees' "right" to
"contraception" that is "free."
I put all three words in quotation marks because these
are deeply contentious claims. For starters, the right to free birth control —
or health care generally — is not one you'll find in the Constitution. And even
if you think it should be a right, that is hardly a settled issue in American
life.
The right to own a gun is a far more settled issue
constitutionally, politically and legally in this country, but not even the
National Rifle Association would dream to argue that we have a right to free
guns, provided by our employers. If your boss were required to give you a gun,
your new employer-provided Glock still wouldn't be free because non-cash
compensation is still compensation. The costs to the employer are fungible,
which means whether it's a pistol or a pill, the cost is still coming out of
your paycheck — and your coworkers' paychecks.
"Regular, predictable expenses such as birth control
pills cannot be defrayed by insurance; they can only be prepaid, with a markup
for the insurer's administrative costs," writes Bloomberg's Megan McArdle.
"The extra cost is passed on by the insurers to your employer, and from
your employer to you and your fellow workers, either by raising your
contribution or lowering the wage they are willing to offer."
Last, birth control pills really aren't the issue. Both
companies suing the government under Obamacare have no objection to providing
insurance plans that cover the cost of birth control pills and other forms of
contraception. What both the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties object
to is paying for abortifacients — drugs that terminate a pregnancy rather than
prevent one. (Hobby Lobby also opposes paying for IUDs, which prevent
implantation of a fertilized egg.) The distinction is simple: Contraception
prevents fertilization and pregnancy. Drugs such as "Plan B"
terminate a pregnancy, albeit at an extremely early stage.
The plaintiffs in these cases aren't saying the
government should ban abortifacients or make it impossible for their employees
to buy them. All they are asking is that the people using such drugs pay for
them themselves rather than force employers and co-workers to share the cost.
In other words, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood want such birth control
decisions to be left to individual women and their doctors. Leave the rest of
us out of it.
But leaving the rest of us out of it is exactly the
opposite intent of the authors of Obamacare. The law forces not only arts and
crafts shops but also Catholic charities and other religiously inspired groups
to choose between fulfilling their mission or violating their values. You may
have no moral objection to such things, but millions of people do. By what
right are liberals seeking to impose their values on everyone else? Isn't that
something they denounce conservatives for?
They could have allowed for plans that exclude
controversial forms of birth control — or even uncontroversial ones — which
would have lowered premium costs and expanded health care coverage to more poor
people.
But Democrats wanted a wedge issue to drum up a new
battle in the culture war — a war in which liberals have always been the
aggressors.
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