A Business Owner's Right To Choose

An owner's right to refuse to host a meeting by an organization that is against a woman's right to have autonomy over her body set off a tsunami. Jim Sheehan, the owner of a coffee shop in Driggs, was filmed in mid-August telling members of an anti-abortion rights group not to hold a meeting in his cafe, he has found himself the subject of national news stories and columns. He and his wife have been doxxed, and his business received so many angry calls — even death threats — that staff turned off the phones. Ironically when people try to protect a woman's body autonomy people threaten to kill them, making it all too clear that this is not, in fact, about life. No, it is about controlling women, making them at best second class citizens when you take away their ability to choose what is best for their bodies. It all started with a Facebook post by members of Students for Life of America, a group that opposes abortion rights, advertising that it would hold an Aug. 17 meeting at Wydaho Roasters to discuss efforts surrounding Proposition 1, a 2026 ballot initiative in Idaho that seeks to increase access to abortion. Sheehan, who supports Prop 1, also called the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, responded to the Facebook post in a comment, asking the group to hold its event elsewhere. He said he didn’t give the topic much more thought after that. But the next day, he said, he looked up from grinding coffee to see that the meeting was taking place anyway. He confronted the group, reiterating that he didn’t want them meeting in his shop. An event in the cafe, he reasoned, would give the appearance of support from the business and its owners, and he strongly opposed this group’s efforts. In a confrontation the activists filmed, they pressed Sheehan on what they saw as hypocrisy. His shop advertises its desire to be inclusive, flying an LGBTQ+ Pride flag and displaying a sign that reads, “Everyone is Welcome Here.” Well, not racists and not people who see women as less than worthy of the rights that men are afforded. They can buy coffee, but they cannot advertise they are holding meetings in a business without the owner's permission.