Like many, we've pretty much been freaking out over this crazy Hobby Lobby court case thing.
Recap?
Crafts store Hobby Lobby and wholesale manufacturer Conestoga Wood are ticked off that the Affordable Care Act requires them to provide women's health care options to employees. Specifically, they have a beef with IUDs, the morning-after pill Plan B and ella (a type of Plan B with a longer window of effectiveness). Why? They think these baby-stoppin' instruments induce abortions. (Um, no.) Ironically/outrageously, Hobby Lobby's 401(k) retirement plan has holdings of over $73 million in mutual funds, thanks to investments in companies that make the very products and drugs used in actual abortions.
But wait, there's more. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the current Archbishop of New York, has appeared on the CBS show Face the Nation to defend Hobby Lobby's shady position. In his argument, Dolan stated that birth control was super-easy to obtain, saying it's available at any gas station..like 7-11!
Well, folks, we're here to give you a reality check: you cannot order the morning-after pill alongside your Wild Cherry slurpee at the local 7-11. Obviously, the friendly attendants aren't going to insert an IUD into your uterus (it's above their pay grade). And to prove that you also can't order Plan B and ella, we called up several 7-11s in the progressive sex mecca of San Francisco—probably the only city in the country that would possibly be cool with this—to straight-up ask if they carried either product.
Their responses? One nice and noticeably concerned man said 7-11 doesn't carry those items, and as far as he knew, they were only available at locations with a pharmacy. (How logical!) Another respondent was actually horrified by the request and hung up the phone. We also called several gas stations and received the same response: a mix of "what the hell are you talking about?" "definitely no" and "please for the love of God, let me get off the phone with this crazy woman."
A quick online search further confirmed that 7-11s (and gas stations in general) do not sell Plan B or ella.
Well duh, right? And who cares if some random Catholic guy said something inaccurate on T.V.?
Here's the problem, though: this random Catholic guy happens to lead Catholicism in the most populous city in America. When he says that Plan B is waiting for women at the local gas station, there are some who may actually believe him, just as there are some who may now believe that birth control causes abortions. These are not only lies, but lies that could significantly impact the lives of women in times of need.
Ladies of the world, trust us: if you think you may be pregnant, you will not find what you're looking for at the local 7-11. What you'll find instead are cold hot dogs and artificially flavored slurpees. And when it comes to your reproductive health, you deserve a hell of a lot better than that.
Image: Look how sad Hobby Lobby is making that condom!
