The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Catholic nuns who provide free hospice care to dying cancer patients, challenging a New York law they say would require them to use “preferred pronouns” and assign rooms based on “gender identity.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said the law forces religious institutions to choose between their faith and their ability to continue serving those in need.
Dhillon suggested in a June 18 DOJ press release that the suit has implications for states nationwide, which “should take notice that they cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology.”
"For more than a century, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients in their last days," Dhillon stated. "New York's law would force these religious women to choose between their faith and their license if they wish to continue serving the dying."
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate Rosary Hill Home in New York, argue that the state’s requirement for long-term care facilities conflicts with Catholic teaching regarding the sexes and the human person.
As Zeale News previously reported, the sisters and the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer filed suit in April after alleging the law would require accommodations based on “gender identity” that would conflict with their religious beliefs.
The DOJ stated in the release that it intends to argue the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
