Obama admin. doubles down, demands nuns violate their conscience on abortion-inducing drugs
- Tue Jan 07, 2014 18:00 EST
- Tags: Conscience Rights, Hhs Mandate, Little Sisters Of The Poor, Obamacare
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a reply filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the Obama administration is arguing that a group of nuns that has objected to the HHS birth control and abortifacient mandate has no grounds to challenge the mandate since they are already exempt from it as a religious organization.
However, lawyers for the nuns have pointed out that in order to claim their exemption, the administration is requiring the nuns to sign a “permission slip” that would allow their insurance company to offer coverage of contraception, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization over the nuns’ objections.
The Sisters argue that participating in the process in any way would make them party to mortal sin. Even the fact that the government would pay the insurer for the coverage, and so costs would not fall on the Sisters, fails to address this concern, they say.
On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) responded to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s injunction protecting the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious organizations from the HHS mandate. According to its response, the Little Sisters of the Poor have “no legal basis to challenge the self-certification requirement or to complain that it involves them in the process of providing contraceptive coverage.”
The DOJ also cited lower court decisions against the Little Sisters, saying that “both of the lower courts recognized this case involves a church plan that is exempt from regulation.” The Obama administration stated that the Sisters need only sign paperwork opting out of the mandate and that while this would then open up their insurance company to covering what the Sisters believe are sinful measure, the Sisters themselves would not be paying for anything they object to.
The mandate, which went into effect in January 2012 and has gone through several revisions, has caused a backlash among religiously affiliated non-profits and some business owners, because they say the government is forcing them to violate their beliefs against abortifacients and contraception.
In all, 91 lawsuits have been filed by religious and non-religious organizations.
In a public statement, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Senior Counsel and Lead Counsel for Little Sisters Mark Rienzi decried the administration’s defense of the mandate.
“The government demands that the Little Sisters of the Poor sign a permission slip for drugs and contraceptives, or pay…millions in fines,” he said.
“The government now asks the Supreme Court to believe that the very thing it is forcing the nuns to do—signing the permission slip—is a meaningless act,” Rienzi continued. “But why on earth would the government be fighting the Little Sisters all the way to the Supreme Court if it did not think its own form had any effect?”
The Supreme Court is hearing two challenges to the mandate in March from for-profit organizations. The government’s response to the injunction gives Sotomayor and the Supreme Court the ability to keep the injunction in place until the cases are decided, or suspend it until the case is decided.
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