Hobby Lobby and other corporations’ fight to dismantle contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, reflects the larger anti-abortion discourse at work in the fight for health care reform.

States across the country are waging local fights against abortion coverage, access to contraceptives, and other reproductive justice issues just as the ACA seeks to expand health care for millions of American.

This political and ideological tug-of-war underscores the deep-seated tensions regarding women’s health.

Take, for example, the recent omnibus legislation regarding abortion in Texas. Since last fall, conservative lawmakers in Texas have tried to not so surreptitiously close health clinics that administer abortions by requiring that abortion-providing doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals, in addition to severely restricting the prescription of abortion services. Opponents to this legislation argued that by drastically reducing the number of abortion providers, the consequence of requiring doctors with admitting privileges, that the thousands of Texans seeking abortions would be placed under an undue burden. RH Reality Check reports that last week’s decision to uphold the anti-choice legislation “doesn’t simply reinforce legislation designed to cut off abortion access for those most in need—it also sets forth a practically unnavigable path for challenging future state restrictions on abortion access.” In other words, this decision mirrors the typical obstructionist philosophy that has been the strategy for conservative politicians during the last six years of the Obama administration.

Texas is far from alone in this fight to cut off access to reproductive care. In fact, there is a frenzy of anti-abortion legislation sweeping the nation. Huffington Post reports that, “State lawmakers enacted more anti-abortion bills between 2011 and 2013 than they had in the entire previous decade, effectively shutting down dozens of abortion clinics throughout the country.” It is no coincidence that this flurry of anti-choice activity is occurring just as the Affordable Care Act is being implemented, as those on the Right fear the widening of abortion access across the country.

Although many Americans favor some restrictions and oppose late-term abortions, the majority of Americans do not want to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to Gallup polls. Therefore, anti-abortion lawmakers repeatedly seek to circumvent the American people and create legislative measures that do not simply restrict access but seek to cut of access altogether. It is an tactical maneuver aimed at snuffing out abortion coverage through suffocation rather than thoughtful deliberation and community consensus.

Not convinced? Let’s think about severe restrictions in comparison to another hot button issue: gun control. What if, despite the fact that owning firearms are legal, individual states placed so many restrictions on gun shops that most were forced to shut their doors, therefore making it impossible to actually purchase a gun? Would guns’ rights activists deem that scenario constitutional? Certainly not. Americans would be in up in arms about the attack on the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.
Along those same lines, these restrictions on abortion providers that are popping up all over the cover violate a federal law. These overwhelming restrictions are not only legally suspect, they are matters of morality as well. Circumventing the law with trickery and backhanded dealing undermines the sanctity of our democracy, shaky though it may be.
Those interested in protecting women’s reproductive choice will need to continue to be vigilant in challenging the Right’s attack on abortion and contraceptive coverage, especially as anti-choice lobbyists and lawmakers maneuver the political landscape with increasing disregard to the public will.