After the landmark ruling denying employees of Hobby Lobby access to contraception, several employees have banded together to pool their skills and know-how to help craft homemade birth control to be shared among female employees.
“We got a few of the bouquet creators to fashion a sort of do-it-yourself intrauterine device,” says Cathy Johnson, assistant manager of the Norman, OK location. The device is made from a series of pipe cleaners and copper plating from unused crafting beads. Johnson notes, “We’re just trying to make do with what we have.”
Johnson adds that the unused IUDs make great accent pieces for a table centerpiece or bouquet.
For many of the employees working just above the minimum wage, they feel as though they were left with no choice but to take matters into their own hands. “Getting an IUD would cost me over two months’ rent,” says cashier Jenny Valdano. “If I didn’t whip something up, I’d have to make a hard choice between feeding my baby, and not having another baby.”
Some part-time cake-decorating teachers in Visalia, CA had similar intentions, having concocted a makeshift morning-after suppository made from Coca-Cola, red food coloring and trace amounts of battery acid. “The result is actually a creamy rose-colored concoction,” said decorator Susan Velasquez. “It almost looks good enough to eat.”
Velasquez is proud of what she calls her store’s most epic “craftstravaganza” in years. She understands why everyone banded together so quickly: “Take away sex, the only thing that’s fun for us and doesn’t cost any money, and all we have left is crafts. You can’t take that away from us.”
