Hobby Lobby sure sounds like something that would never harm you. As Ray the Ghostbuster said in Ghostbusters, “Something I loved from childhood…something that could never ever possibly destroy us…” But sadly, it is true: a threat wrapped in adorableness, Hobby Lobby v Sibelius is the 100’ tall Stay Puff Marshmallow Man of legal cases.
On March 25th, the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments for and against the claim that Hobby Lobby, a privately-held company run by a family with conservative Christian beliefs, should not be compelled to purchase insurance for its employees that includes coverage for contraceptives, as is mandated under Obamacare. Actually the company does not object to all contraceptives, only to those that they consider abortifacients, including IUD’s and the morning after pill. Because this case concerns their right to act in accordance with religious ideology, the question of whether or not these methods actually produce an abortion is moot – it only matters that the owners of Hobby Lobby believe them to be wrong. So while the particulars of their faith mean that some contraceptives would still be available to Hobby Lobby employees, the principle under review, untethered to any burden of proof or objective standard, is far more sweeping.
Although the contraceptives issue itself is important, people on both sides have emphasized that this decision will have broader consequences. For instance, advocates for gay rights have seen this as a foot in the door for state-sanctioned discrimination, giving companies the right to refuse service or employment based on prejudice dressed up as religious beliefs. Adam Winkler, UCLA law professor writing in the Huffington Post, describes a number of ways that anti-discrimination laws could be undermined if any employer could claim a “religion-based objection to the law.”
This case is something that genetic counselors and the NSGC should be watching with concern, as it is likely to impact our field as well. Employers who object to paying for coverage that includes contraceptives may take a similarly skeptical view of paying for insurance that covers prenatal testing, with the reasoning that prenatal testing is done only to provide the opportunity for abortion. You can (and we will) argue that prenatal testing can lead to therapy or better case management or simple reassurance, but others will assert that the point of prenatal testing is to open the door for termination and, right or wrong, this is an argument that is likely to be taken seriously by conservative justices. If that seems crazy to you, do this thought experiment: imagine that termination is not an option under any circumstances, and then picture trying to get insurance companies to pay for amniocentesis.
Why do I think that anti-abortion advocates will target prenatal testing? it’s simple: they’ve been talking about it for years. Remember Rick Santorum, who was for a time one of the frontrunners to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012? He made a speech during the campaign where he talked about the fact that prenatal testing is included as a fundamental and required part of healthcare coverage under Obamacare rules. “One of the mandates is they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in America. Why? Because it saves money in health care. Why? Because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.” This speech shocked a lot of people in the field when it hit the presses, but it didn’t shock his Christian Alliance audience at all. This doesn’t come from nowhere. Prenatal diagnosis is on the radar of the anti-abortion movement in the United States, which is why Hobby Lobby should be on ours.
Want more proof? How about the law passed in North Dakota last year, which prohibits abortion for sex selection or genetic defect? This statute has gone unchallenged in large part because it is almost impossible to enforce, as opposed to — say — the law restricting all abortions past six weeks gestation, which was passed at the same time and (understandably) got the lion’s share of the press. But the genetic abortion law, first of its kind, is a clear manifesto expressing the intention of those who oppose abortion to limit the ability of women to terminate for cause. And t that end, eliminating coverage for prenatal testing is a far more effective tool than trying to pass laws that require prosecutors to prove something about a woman’s state of mind.
This is an issue that isn’t going away. In fact, I predict it’s going to get worse. Why? Because we are getting better at what we do. Keep in mind that all our steps forward (better sensitivity, better specificity, earlier results, less invasive testing) are threatening to a mindset that sees prenatal diagnosis as an ever more efficient way to identify and eliminate vulnerable individuals. When ACOG revised its practice guidelines in 2007 to increase the number of women eligible for prenatal testing, columnist George Will wrote, “what is antiseptically called “screening” for Down syndrome is, much more often than not, a search-and-destroy mission…” Will, the father of a son with Down syndrome, bemoaned the change in practice precisely because it would be more effective.
I know, not because I am psychic, but because I have had this conversation before, what genetic counselors will say when this line of attack is launched. First, they will talk about their own commitment to be supportive of all choices for their patients, including the choice not to terminate, which is incredibly important to your patients but doesn’t matter at all to anti-abortion activists. They don’t care if you are a good counselor, or a good person, since it doesn’t change the fact that a large percentage (how large; under dispute) of all those who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome, for example, will choose to abort. Second, they will argue that prenatal testing has a value beyond the opportunity to terminate, which is true but a bit disingenuous for the same reason as above. Prenatal testing puts termination on the table as an option.
What I don’t like about this defensive posture is that it implies that giving families the option to terminate is not a good enough reason to do testing, or that we are unwilling to champion it as such. I don’t think this is how most counselors feel, but it is natural to try and tiptoe around the sensitivities of others, especially when those sensitivities are emotionally charged and involve a lot of judging – judging of us, and of our patients, whose feelings as well as medical options we would like to protect. But ultimately I think it is a better and stronger position to argue on behalf of what we do without defensiveness. We shouldn’t base our case for prenatal testing on the need to provide reassurance or how it improves prenatal care because those are not our best arguments and it makes us sound ashamed.
And meanwhile, stayed tuned on Hobby Lobby, where a decision is expected in early June.
The DNA Exchange 