The Hahn Family’s Story

There’s an analogy that prompts the reflection of where God is if your life were a dresser. Is He a drawer? The top drawer? No. He is the whole dresser.

You can’t compartmentalize your faith. It holds and frames everything you do.

This is true for the Hahn family, who run their company, Conestoga Wood Specialties.

“I can’t live a life in church and then live a life at work. It’s the same,” Anthony Hahn, the CEO, said. Faith is integrated into every area of life.

It was this integration of faith that was threatened by an HHS mandate under the Obama administration.

Meet the Hahns

Norman Hahn founded Conestoga Wood Specialties in 1964. What started as a small woodworking business in a Pennsylvania garage grew into a trusted manufacturer of custom cabinets, doors, and other wooden kitchen and bath components. Anthony Hahn, one of Norman’s sons, now serves as president and CEO.

“Our faith—that’s what we’re founded on,” Anthony said. “That’s what we were building our company on—those values, those principles that we grew up with. It was our faith, our religion, to do business in a fair and ethical manner and to treat our employees that way. ‘Treat other people the way you want them to treat you.’ That is in the Bible, and it’s played an important part in how we do business.”

The Hahns are a practicing Mennonite Christian family who have sought to run their company, Conestoga Wood Specialties, in a manner that reflects their sincerely held religious beliefs, including their belief in the sanctity of human life. That’s why they knew they could not follow the HHS mandate to provide funding for drugs that could kill an unborn child.

“From the get-go, it was difficult, because Mennonites don’t go to court. Here, they needed to go to court to be able to protect their rights,” Allied Attorney Randy Wenger said.

“After talking through that for a period of time … we felt there was really no other decision to make. We weren’t going to facilitate the taking of human life,” Anthony Hahn said.

The Obama HHS contraceptive mandate to cover abortifacients

Religious employers in the United States are afforded the right to run their business in line with their beliefs. For some Christian employers, however, that right was threatened under the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 (often called Obamacare), employers with over 50 full-time staff members were required to offer a group health plan to their employees. The plan had to provide “minimum essential coverage,” which included “preventive care and screenings” for women.

In February 2012, however, the HHS finalized rules that said preventive care includes employer funding for drugs that facilitate abortion by causing the demise of a conceived child in its earliest stages of development.

There were exemptions from the contraceptive mandate for a variety of businesses. Any employer with fewer than 50 employees did not have to provide health insurance. Churches were also exempt. But since Conestoga Wood Specialties operates as a for-profit corporation, it was not allowed to apply for a religious exemption.

If a non-exempt business like Conestoga Wood Specialties failed to follow the ACA’s guidelines, it would be forced to pay up to $100 per day for every employee affected. If the employer decided to stop providing any healthcare at all and any one of its employees qualified for an ACA subsidy, it would be forced to pay $2,000 a year for each full-time employee. The first penalty alone threatened to cost Conestoga Wood Specialties around $33 million per year.

The Hahns cannot facilitate taking a life

The HHS mandate forced the Hahns to pay—against their religious beliefs—for drugs that could cause abortion.

Many of the FDA-approved drugs and other contraception methods prevent an egg from ever being fertilized, but four of them may prevent an already fertilized egg from developing. The Hahns view those four methods as abortion and the taking of an innocent human life.

“This is a moral concern for us,” Anthony said. “We actually have a sanctity of life statement that we put together that says we believe that life begins at the instant conception takes place. Nobody has a right to take that life except God. So we really don’t want to be in a business of providing drugs to our employees that could potentially cause abortion.”

“When the mandate came out, and we heard about it, we knew that we had to comply based on how the law was; it was particularly troubling for us to understand that we would need to require our health insurance policies to include in it contraceptive[s] that would cause abortions or be abortifacient.”

Conestoga Wood Specialties filed a lawsuit against HHS in January 2013. It alleged the HHS contraceptive mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Passed by Congress in 1993, RFRA states that the government must satisfy the highest standard of review if a law burdens religious exercise.

Around the same time as Conestoga Wood Specialties filed its lawsuit, Christian craft store Hobby Lobby also filed a lawsuit against HHS over the contraceptive mandate. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled against Conestoga Wood Specialties.

Both decisions were appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court took both cases, consolidating them under Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores. Attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, Law Offices of Proctor Lindsay & Dixon, and Independence Law Center represented Conestoga Wood Specialties.

A win for the Hahns’ religious freedom

In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that the HHS contraceptive mandate violated RFRA with respect to family businesses like Conestoga Wood Specialties and Hobby Lobby. This means that closely held companies do not have to cover contraceptives that could cause abortions for their employees in violation of their religious beliefs. They are free to live according to their beliefs without being punished by the government.

“Americans don’t surrender their freedom by opening a family business,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel David Cortman. “In its decision today, the Supreme Court affirmed that all Americans, including family business owners, must be free to live and work according to their beliefs without fear of government punishment. In a free and diverse society, we respect the freedom to live out our convictions. For the Hahns and the Greens, that means not being forced to participate in distributing potentially life-terminating drugs and devices.”

“We in the Hahn family want to thank everyone who supported us during this lawsuit,” Anthony said. “We wholeheartedly affirm what the Supreme Court made clear today – that Americans don’t have to surrender their freedom when they open a family business. As I said at the beginning of this lawsuit, this effort wasn’t just for Conestoga. We took this stand for others as well. The administration has gone too far in disrespecting the freedom of Americans to live out their convictions.”

The Hahns stood for religious freedom. Will you?

Americans’ freedoms do not end when they choose to open a business. As Anthony Hahn made clear, this fight was never just about one family or one company—it was about every American who wants to run a business without being forced to check their convictions at the door. The government cannot force individuals or closely held corporations to violate their religious beliefs.

The Hahns took a stand knowing it would cost them their time, privacy, and much public scrutiny. They did it anyway, because they believed the principle was worth defending—not just for themselves, but for the countless family business owners who never made headlines.

Will you give today to defend and advance religious freedom?