On Fox The Hobby Lobby Case Is About Abortion Not Contraceptives

Fox New's Shannon Bream misleadingly framed a case challenging reproductive rights in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) before the Supreme Court as an abortion issue when in fact the case deals with the inclusion of contraceptives, not abortion, as essential services under employer provided insurance. 

On the March 25 edition of Special Report, Supreme Court correspondent Shannon Bream reported on oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby case, which has to do with Hobby Lobby's desire to avoid the ACA's contraception mandate.  Bream introduced the segment by claiming the case had to do with “abortion and Obamacare, two controversial topics that stir heated passions,” later adding, “and that is just what happened both inside and outside the Supreme Court today”:

Despite Fox's framing, the case is about contraception, not abortion. While Hobby Lobby has attempted to claim that their opposition to contraception is based on the belief that they are the equivalent of abortifacients, medical experts have explained that they are not. According to institutions such as the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, contraceptives such as the morning-after pill do not “terminate established pregnancies”:

In federal law and medical terms, pregnancy does not begin with a fertilized egg, but with a fertilized egg that has implanted in the uterus. The contraceptives in question--Plan B, Ella, copper and hormonal IUDs--do not cause abortions as the plaintiffs maintain, because they are not being used to terminate established pregnancies.

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Since the FDA approved Plan B in 1999, repeated studies have shown the drug does not inhibit implantation. After The New York Times' Pam Belluck investigated these findings in 2012, the NIH and the Mayo Clinic updated their websites to remove the implantation clause. In Europe, the label for the drug Norlevo, which is identical to Plan B, has already been changed to reflect the most recent research. And the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics and the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception have issued statements saying levonorgestrel-only emergency contraceptives do not stop implantation. 

In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, abortion coverage is “specifically banned from being required as part of the essential benefits package offered by plans in exchanges and all of the exchanges must offer consumers the choice of at least one plan that does not provide abortion coverage”. Furthermore, the contraceptives objected to by Hobby Lobby are deemed contraceptives and not abortifacients by medical experts at the National Institute of Health, the Mayo Clinic and the International Federation of Gynecology.