Christian Cleaners: "No More Wire Hangers!"

The debate over abortion has broken out in an unlikely place: dry cleaners.  Most people think of their local dry cleaners as a place where they can bring their clothes to have them professionally cleaned and pressed.  To such an uninformed consumer, all those paper-enveloped wire hangers are simply a place to hang a shirt.  However, these useful tools can be used to perform "back-alley abortions," creating a moral dillema for Christian dry cleaners.

Emboldened by the recent stories regarding Christian pharmacists refusing to dispense the Plan B emergency contraceptive, a small, but growing group of Christian dry cleaners are refusing to use wire hangers at their businesses.

[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignright" width="303" caption="Death awaits..."][/caption]

Randy Houseman, owner of Yahweh Cleaners, explains why he feels so strongly about the issue: "As Edmund Burke said, 'All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.'  I'm not going to be one of the good men who does nothing."

Calls to Planned Parenthood were not returned.

"If even one of my wire hangers was used to end the life of an innocent child, I don't know how I could live with myself," said Houseman.  "Shouldn't I be able to run a business without having to choose between my beliefs and the responsibilities of my job?  Isn't this still America?"

Houseman finds religious symbolism in his job: "When a shirt comes to me, hopelessly stained, I am able to wash it white as snow.  Given how great a feeling that is, I can only imagine how amazing it must be for Jesus to do that to people!"

"It's actually not that great," says mortician Douglas Wightman, who cleans bodies in preperation for memorial services.  "It's actually kinda gross."