Stop Eden Foods' Crusade Against Birth Control!

Soy milk. Organic beans. Gluten-free pasta. A radical agenda to ban birth control coverage for their employees?

Eden Foods is one of the country's major organic foods companies, and their products can be purchased at Whole Foods, local markets, and co-ops across the country. They claim they stand for "purity in food," and now, they also stand for a right-wing crusade against birth control. The company is suing the Obama Administration over the rule that insurance companies must cover birth control under the new healthcare law. Why? Because as CEO Michael Potter put it, they believe that "these procedures [birth control] almost always involve immoral and unnatural practices."¹

That's right. Because Eden Foods's CEO is ideologically opposed to birth control, the company thinks they have the right to dictate to all their employees what health care they will have access to. That doesn't just affect their employees. It's a dangerous precedent that they are asking the court to set for all workers going forward. But progressive-minded people make up a huge portion of Eden's customers -- people who are likely to think that a boss shouldn't be dictating their employees' private health care decisions. And the CEO has already said "we're getting a lot of feedback" and that the push back against them on social media "is a big deal."²

Employers have no right to interfere with the reproductive health care of their female employees. If we all speak out now to add to the outrage, we can show Eden Foods and other businesses that are watching the controversy that their lawsuit is bad for publicity and bad for their bottom line.

Making sure employee health insurance covers birth control matters:

- 1 in 3 women has had trouble affording birth control.³
- Women who had better access to the pill earned 8% more than those who didn't by the time they were 50.⁴
- Young women who can obtain the pill are 12% more likely to enroll in college.⁵
- 99% of women who've had sex have used birth control.⁶

Michael Potter and Eden Foods are spreading lies, like claiming that certain companies are already exempted from the birth control mandate and that some religions are exempted and others aren't.⁷ Neither of these is true. The truth is, only houses of worship are exempt, and religiously affiliated organizations like hospitals and schools can push the cost of birth control coverage onto the insurer.⁸

And Potter's reason for suing? "Because I'm a man, number one and it's really none of my business what women do."⁹ But by entering this lawsuit, Potter is making it not just his business but every other employer in America's business what kind of health care their female employees get.

Employers can't flout laws just because they don't like them. Allowing employers to dictate whether or not their employees have access to birth control is wrong and un-American.

We need to let Eden Foods and their CEO, Michael Potter, know that trying to deny their employees basic health care like birth control is bad for business. Sign the petition to Potter right away.