The Trump administration recently issued new exemptions for the Little Sisters of the Poor from being required to fund contraceptives, including abortion inducing drugs. The exemption came in the form of an executive order issued by President Trump. which rolled back the Obamacare birth control mandate that forced Christian businesses and organizations to pay for abortion inducing forms of contraception through the health care plans offered to their employees.
With the issue of the executive orders, the Trump administration stated legal reasons for the two rules issued: both religious and moral objections.
However some states want to force Catholic nuns to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, and so two attorneys general in California and Pennsylvania are legally challenging the executive orders. The Little Sisters of the Poor are now heading back to court to defend their constitutional rights to operate their organization according to their consciences.
The Little Sisters of the Poor are an international Roman Catholic charity organization that serve the elderly poor in roughly thirty countries around the world. According to their mission statement, the Little Sisters’ mission is, “To offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as family and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to himself.
The Little Sisters also state that their “vision is to contribute to the Culture of Life by nurturing communities where each person is valued, the solidarity of the human family and the wisdom of age are celebrated, and the compassionate love of Christ is shared with all.”
As you can see, the value and dignity of human life is sprinkled throughout their mission and values statement, and all over their website. It is one of their key tenets. A cornerstone of who their organization is and what they stand for. To be required to provide abortion inducing drugs would be to simultaneously contradict the very heart of the mission of the organization.
Why is that Josh Shapiro, attorney general for Pennsylvania and Xavier Becca, attorney general for California are so against religious liberty and conscience protections that they think attacking nuns is politically expedient?
If the lawsuit makes it to the Supreme Court, this will make the third time that the mandate will have been challenged before the Supreme Court. Previously, both times the Supreme Court sided in favor with religious liberty with the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby.
