Posted on 11/03/2021 1:39:34 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
The Supreme Court issued an important ruling today stopping New York state from forcing Christians to fund abortions in their health care plans. The ruling comes on the same day SCOTUS is holding oral arguments related to two pro-abortion lawsuits seeking to block the Texas abortion ban.
In its ruling today, the Supreme Court just ordered New York courts to reconsider Diocese of Albany v. Emami, a case challenging New York’s coercive abortion mandate that requires employers to cover abortions in their health insurance plans—even if the employers are religious groups.
The Sisterhood of Saint Mary, an Anglican order of nuns, filed a lawsuit against the abortion funding mandate. After New York courts upheld the coercive mandate, attorneys for the Anglican nuns filed suit and other legal groups filed suit on to represent the Diocese of Albany and other Christian groups at the Supreme Court, which today vacated the lower courts’ rulings and ordered a rehearing of the case.
In light of the unanimous victory for the Little Sisters of the Poor in its case against an abortion funding mandate, the Supreme Court issued yet another decision striking down an abortion funding mandate.
“New York clearly learned nothing from the federal government’s own attempts to force nuns to pay for contraceptives and is now needlessly threatening charities because they believe in the dignity and humanity of every human person,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “Punishing faith groups for ministering to their local communities is cruel and counterproductive. We are thankful that the Supreme Court won’t allow the New York Court of Appeals’ bad ruling to be the last word on the right of religious ministries to serve New Yorkers of all faiths.”
New York’s law has only a limited religious exemption—for religious groups that primarily serve and employ people of their own religion. This exemption, which is so narrow that Jesus himself would not qualify for it, excludes the Sisterhood of St. Mary because they sponsor a 4-H club and allow local youth to lease some of their prized Cashmere goats as part of their agricultural outreach ministry.
Other religious groups targeted by the abortion mandate include the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the First Bible Baptist Church of Hilton, New York, and Catholic Charities, the Catholic Church’s charitable arm, which all joined forces against the abortion mandate. What all of these diverse groups have in common is that they seek to serve all people in their communities: the First Bible Baptist Church conducts outreach via its local youth ministry, Catholic Charities provides adoption and maternity services to its community, and the Carmelite Sisters operate the Teresian Nursing Home in Albany. But because they offer these services to people in their communities regardless of their faith background, the state holds that they must offer abortion services in their insurance plans—or else.
“We believe that every person is made in the image of God,” said Mother Miriam of the Sisterhood of Saint Mary, the oldest Anglican religious order founded in America. “That’s why we believe in the sanctity of human life, and why we seek to serve those of all faiths—or no faith at all—in our community. We’re grateful that the Supreme Court has taken action in our case and hopeful that, this time around, the New York Court of Appeals will preserve our ability to serve and encourage our neighbors.”
“We are gratified and grateful that the Supreme Court has recognized the serious constitutional concerns over New York State’s heavy-handed abortion mandate on religious employers,” said The Most Rev. Edward B. Scharfenberger, bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York. “We are confident that now that the Court has ordered the case remanded for reconsideration in light of last year’s Fulton v. Philadelphia decision, the unconstitutional regulatory action taken by New York State will ultimately be completely overturned as incompatible with our country’s First Amendment guarantee of religious liberty.”
The position puts Christian charities in an “intolerable position”; the state is forcing them to choose between paying for the killing of unborn babies in abortions or giving up their ministries that help people in need, lawyers for the Christian groups argued. Funding the killing of unborn babies in abortions for these and other reasons is “a grave moral evil,” and Christian employers should not be forced to pay for them, they continued.
Without relief, the charities and churches said they will be forced to either stop providing health insurance to their employees or close.
The charities and churches involved in the case include the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Albany and Ogdensburg; the Anglican Sisterhood of St. Mary; the Brooklyn, Albany, and Ogdensburg chapters of Catholic Charities; St. Gregory The Great Catholic Church Society of Amherst; First Bible Baptist Church; Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Albany; the Carmelite charity Teresian House Nursing Home Company; and the Catholic senior living nonprofit Depaul Housing Management Corporation.
An Under the Radar SCOTUS Ruling Could Be a Bellwether on Roe and School Choice
No. No. I don’t believe this. No way.
Thanks for posting. Good news even if limited and narrow in scope.
Amen!
Pretty sure the pope didn’t like this decision.
Anglican nuns filed the lawsuit.
It helps to drop Catholic hatred and read the article instead.
Pretty sure Joek poped his pants over the election results yesterday...
I find that the media is working hard to redraw history.
The Second Amendment is not about militias and not about banning the carrying of firearms in public.
The Roe V Wade decision said that in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy that the “State” has a compelling interest in the unborn child. It was revolutionary, in that it said that in the first trimester that abortions were not to be restricted by State/local legislation. I have no idea how we slide down the slippery slope to allow partial birth abortions. If the Supreme court let's Roe V Wade stand the way the original decision was made, the question before the court is really one of presence of heart beak versus the vague term first trimester. I see Liberals and the media going nuclear if the Supreme Court restores things to the original decision.
HALLELUJAH!
God bless those Anglican nuns!
Well, isn’t Roe about the made-up “right to privacy?”
Worst decision ever.
Let's face it...no woman should be able to kill her baby at will.
And remember, she hires killers to do this. It's not just her involved. They belong in jail.
I believe NYS just passed a law allowing an abortion at any time. Period.
Do you believe that the mother who murders the baby via abortion deserves to be in jail?
On the other hand, if you say that the mother who murders the baby via abortion does not deserve to be in jail, then why not?
So you are on board with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known as Pope Francis (the 266th pope)
And the “mafia club” is an entire subject of it’s own.
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http://www.analysis-review.com/catholic-pope-kgb-patriarch-get-together/
https://traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/A956-Sch.htm
https://www.catholicamericanthinker.com/Red-Pope.html
https://www.aim.org/aim-column/pope-francis-jihad-and-moscows-espionage-church/
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/liberation-theology-activist-pope-francis-is-one-of-us
https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/i99ht_104_Kirill.html
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Wikileaks -
Clinton, Obama, Soros, Worked to Overthrow Pope Benedict for Putin
More Dots -
https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2018/01/14/pope-francis-and-putin-2018s-unspoken-partnership/
https://newspunch.com/wikileaks-soros-vatican-coup/
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What is going on here —
http://themillenniumreport.com/2018/08/the-so-called-vicar-of-jesus-christ-is-in-serious-trouble/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21794798
https://contendingfortruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/End-Time-Current-Events-8-26-18.pdf
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Sent to me by a conservative and patriotic Polish Catholic, 30 year 35F M(OS) analyst, friend of mine -
Same readily available Open Source FSB/CIA M.O. strategy identified and used against Trump and American voters - being used on anti-leftist Catholics
https://insidethevatican.com/news/newsflash/letter-64-2016-vatican-pravda/
There is actually much more.
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