Day of celebration for abortion opponents

Taos resident Mary Hoffmeyer asks her granddaughter Sawyer Hoffmeyer if she's doing OK in the heat as they
participate in a pro-life rally along Missouri Boulevard in front of Hobby Lobby in Jefferson City on Saturday. The rally was organized as a celebration for both Hobby Lobby's recent victory in the Supreme Court and Thursday's acquittal of Kathy Forck, campaign director of 40 Days for Life's Columbia chapter.
Taos resident Mary Hoffmeyer asks her granddaughter Sawyer Hoffmeyer if she's doing OK in the heat as they participate in a pro-life rally along Missouri Boulevard in front of Hobby Lobby in Jefferson City on Saturday. The rally was organized as a celebration for both Hobby Lobby's recent victory in the Supreme Court and Thursday's acquittal of Kathy Forck, campaign director of 40 Days for Life's Columbia chapter.

Saturday, a group led by Kathy Forck, head of the Columbia-based chapter of 40 Days for Life, stood along the sidewalk in front of the Hobby Lobby lot on Missouri Boulevard.

The group, made up of residents throughout Central Missouri, came out to show support for the creative supply store chain which earlier this month learned the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its owners' First Amendment rights to exercise their religious beliefs through their private business.

In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court recently determined provisions of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to prohibit the government "[from] substantially burden[ing] a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability," unless the government can show that its "burden ... is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest."

But, the court's majority ruled, the federal Health and Human Services department's requirement that for-profit companies' group health plans "furnish "preventive care and screenings' for women without "any cost sharing requirements'" doesn't meet that burden because the government had other options it didn't try.

So, the court said, the government cannot force "closely held corporations" - that is, companies owned by a few individuals - to provide contraceptive health care if that would violate the owners' religious beliefs.

Before Saturday's event started, Forck announced that she had just gotten word that a clinic in the Kansas City area that did late term abortions was going to close, which led to cheers from the group.

The 40 Days for Life group's work includes daily prayer vigils outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Providence Road, north of Columbia's downtown business district.

Earlier this month, Boone County Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler ruled Forck was not guilty of trespassing on clinic property.

She was accused of trespassing after giving water to a truck driver on a day the heat exceeded 90 degrees.

Forck was found guilty in a Columbia Municipal Court trial, but appealed that ruling to the circuit court.

"God has done it all," Forck said Saturday. "We just want people to come support the owners of Hobby Lobby as they fight to do what they believe is right."