Free Republic

Imagine if the government said to a religious employer, “We’re not going to require you to pay for abortions, but we will require you to provide employees with a document that entitles them to a free abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic down the street.” Would anyone think for a moment that respected religious liberty? Yet that’s the essence of the government “accommodation” here. The Little Sisters object to providing an abortion/contraception voucher — a voucher that could be redeemed for free abortifacients at the discretion of a third-party administrator. So, no, this is not an argument about a form....

One would assume that a lawyer would think twice before suing an order of nuns called the Little Sisters of the Poor, but not Attorney General Eric Holder. Fox News host Megyn Kelly reported that he’s going after them “tooth and nail” on the Friday night edition of “The Kelly Files.” Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted an order on Dec. 31 temporarily restraining the federal government from enforcing Obamacare’s contraception mandate against the Denver-based Catholic order of nuns. Had Holder’s Justice Department done nothing, the government would have eventually been permanently enjoined from enforcing the mandate against the sisters....

Though he’s had plenty of opportunities to compromise on his overreaching contraceptive mandate, President Obama has defiantly refused them all. Now he’s fighting a group of nuns in US Supreme Court. The nuns are the Little Sisters of the Poor, and they run nursing homes for the elderly. The Little Sisters argue they should not be forced to offer coverage that violates their religious convictions. The Obama argument is astounding. The gist is that the nuns really aren’t religious enough to qualify for the church exemption. The administration backs up that position with hefty fines for the Little Sisters if...

[. . . ] The government actually misrepresents the facts before the Supreme Court. It asserts that all the Little Sisters have to do is file a form saying “they are non-profit organizations that hold themselves out as religious and have religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services.” That's untrue. The government deliberately added more language to the Little Sisters’ form. Because their plan is “self-insured,” in addition to stating their religious objection, the government requires their form to also specifically tell their insurance administrator that he has “obligations” to provide the abortifacient and contraceptive coverage himself. The government...

In 1918 a pitifully frightened and mentally challenged Irish immigrant named Mary McLoughlin died at age 68, in the Little Sisters of the Poor Home For The Aged in Brooklyn. Mary came to America with her family in 1870 but had to live with them all her life because she needed almost constant attention. She never married and was always just a sweet loving aunt who spoke English heavily laced with a County Mayo accent. In 1918 during the height of the Great Flu Epidemic the family she lived with had to make a painful decision. Since the breadwinner, who...

Michael Sean Winters has a post today where he doubles down on his claim that attorneys for the Little Sisters of the Poor are telling “a lie” when they say Obamacare forces the Sisters to sign a “permission slip” for abortion pill and contraception coverage in their health plan.In his response Winters tells two whopping “lies” himself. But it is clear that he isn’t actually responding to the Little Sisters’ attorneys–Winters is hoping that his hysterics will influence someone else.Winters first lies about what the Sisters’ “certification” form says. He quotes the part of the form expressing a religious objection,...

For Immediate Release: January 24, 2014Media Contact: Emily Hardman, ehardman@becketfund.org, 202.349.7224Washington, D.C. – Today the Little Sisters of the Poor received an injunction from the Supreme Court protecting them from the controversial HHS mandate while their case is before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The injunction means that the Little Sisters will not be forced to sign and deliver the controversial government forms authorizing and instructing their benefits administrator to provide contraceptives, sterilization, and drugs and devices that may cause early abortions (see video). The Court’s order also provides protection to more than 400 other Catholic organizations that receive...