Corporations + Birth Control + Religious Freedom

Sarah Mirk made an excellent point in her article about the Hobby Lobby case that made me both chuckle and grimace at the same time. The quote goes, "Based on today’s ruling, the CEOs of these companies could, conceivably, "sincerely believe" that using birth control will turn women into Pokemon and their beliefs would be protected." This is terribly true, even though we'd all love for it to be false. The way I see it, we have an incredible issue regarding teaching sex ed. I watched an interesting video on Buzzfeed about high school students who don't even understand what birth control is, or that birth control can come in more forms than just "The Pill." Most of the students shrugged their shoulders at the original question, "What is birth control?" Pretty sad, right? 

I think there's an extreme similarity between what the budding high school student and the corporations, like Hobby Lobby, who are cracking down on affordable birth control for women. Neither one quite understands the practicality and the uses of birth control. This lack of education, and on the corporations side, complete and total ignorance when it comes to women's issues, is really destructive. On another note, when you factor in something as powerful as religion, things get even more complicated. 

I was raised Catholic, but I identify as Atheist nowadays. Maybe it's because I study history, but one of the things I will never take for granted is my right to practice my religion without persecution, as long as it's not harming someone else. My choice to not practice religion can never be used against me, but had I been born a couple centuries ago in a different country, I would've been stoned to death for my beliefs. I'm all for religious freedom, but the fact of the matter is religion shouldn't have anything to do with birth control. Science has proven that there is absolutely no correlation between the death of possible children and birth control, so a religious argument is invalid. Perhaps we need to give SCOTUS a reminder of what it means to have religious freedom, and how this is truly affecting thousands of employees who most likely do not practice the same religion as the CEO of their company. 

-Bridget