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(It's truly odd how the Left picks and chooses its criteria for that which it supports or rejects. The very same reasons they do one thing do not apply to another if the other is something they despise.
Example: The Left's defense of ACA is, it's "the law of the land." Roe V. Wade is the "law of the land." Gay marriage is "settled law." Yet the Bozeman Food Co-op is preparing to reject products that are made by companies who don't provide birth control to their employees, even though the matter is settled law.
Apparently the Left is all-in on believing their own rhetoric. They actually think that a business that declines to pay for something for you is violating your rights, a patently nonsensical assertion that has the rest of us laughing at their absurdity. It is one of those strategies from their well-worn Playbook Of Slogans: Redefine, lather, then repeat.
Here, the co-op wants to jump in on the culture wars, which has claimed many a participant. No business wins when they take sides and risk alienating 50% of their customer base.
But the worst part is that it would never occur to the co-op to encourage their members to pay for those workers who lack contraceptive coverage themselves. No, it never works that way. The Left is perpetually interested in making sure other people pay their "fair share," but never include themselves. Other people must be forced to extend compassion, but they never get out their own checkbooks. They insist on choice, but deny it to those with whom they disagree.
On the other hand, the free market speaks. They are looking at a free market decision to end a voluntary, private, arrangement and direct their purchasing dollars elsewhere. I fully support this capitalistic activity. I shall also engage in similar free association and make sure my purchasing dollars never end up in their cash registers.
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The Bozeman Food Co-op is weighing a proposal to eliminate a line of food products because the manufacturer refused to provide its workers with birth-control coverage.
At a July Food Co-op board meeting, board members heard from several member-owners who questioned whether the Co-op should continue to stock products distributed by Eden Foods, a Michigan-based organic-food company.
Michael Potter, the sole owner of Eden Foods, is a devout Catholic who is opposed to providing his employees with health care insurance that covers birth control.
Some Food Co-op member-owners said Eden Foods was infringing on its employees’ human rights.
The Co-op defines its values as “self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity,” and some memberowners argued that supporting Eden Foods went against those values because it made the Co-op complicit in denying coverage for birth control to those who want it.
The Co-op board decided to put the issue out to its 15,000 member-owners for a two week comment period that ended Wednesday night.
Co-op spokeswoman Alison Grey Germain said she had yet to process the comments, but the issue had received a lot of feedback, both for and against.
“The Co-op does not have an opinion on this issue,” Grey Germain said. “In general, the Co-op always welcomes input from our member-owners on any issues or concerns they may have. The comment period is just that; a comment period.”
Grey Germain said it could take one to two months before the board considers any action.
At least one customer has jumped to the conclusion that the Coop’s consideration of the issue amounts to religious discrimination.
General manager Kelly Wiseman said the Bozeman Food Co-op was a cooperative, not a nonprofit organization, so it listens to its cooperative members.
“This kind of control over the product is 100 percent the decision of the members. This is one of the things that make a Co-op fun and interesting,” Wiseman said.
Valerie O’Connell, who said she represents the Glastonbury Landowners, which is aligned with the Church Universal Triumphant near Emigrant, said she’d encourage her group to boycott the Co-op if they eliminate Eden Foods. She said she had also contacted the Montana Family Foundation.
The Montana Family Foundation is a nonprofit religious organization that has lobbied against abortion and gay rights and for taxpayer funding of charter schools.
“We tolerate all religions. So for us to hear about this reverse discrimination after the Hobby Lobby decision, we’re just appalled,” O’Connell said. “They’re serving the public and they shouldn’t take sides. They’re taking a stance against religion.”
When the Affordable Health Care Act mandated coverage for birth control, Eden Foods joined about 70 other companies that insisted they should be able to opt out of contraceptive coverage for religious reasons. In March 2013, Eden Foods sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In October, an appeals court ruled that a corporation, unlike a person, could not exercise religion.
But in June, the Supreme Court — following the precedent set by the Citizens United ruling that corporations are people — ruled in a split decision that small companies could object to birth control on religious grounds.
The Supreme Court ordered lower courts to apply the ruling to previous cases, including that of Eden Foods.
The Supreme Court ruling was narrow, but in her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that it opened the door for business owners with wideranging religious beliefs to deny employees coverage for almost anything on religious grounds.
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