President Trying to Force Little Sisters of the Poor to Promote Birth Control and Abortion-Causing Drugs‏ ...

The Obama administration appears to be going out of its way to force the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor to provide birth control, including abortion-causing drugs, in its health insurance plans, contrary to the nuns’ religious beliefs, charges a legal brief in the charity’s lawsuit against the federal government.

“The government’s latest interim rules – the seventh set of revisions to the mandate in 36 months – change nothing of substance in this appeal,” explains a court filing in the dispute between the Obama administration and the order of Catholic nuns who run dozens of homes of the needy and elderly around the world.

”The government easily could have eliminated the need for this appeal,” contends the brief filed Monday with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the nuns.

The Becket Fund contends the government is hijacking the nuns’ health-care plan “to deliver drugs.”

“It could have exempted the Little Sisters as ‘religious employers’ – just as it would if the Little Sisters’ homes were operated by Catholic bishops,” the brief argues. “… It could have exempted church plans. It could have adopted the ‘most straightforward’ path of just providing contraceptives itself … such as through Title X or tax incentives.

“Most simply, it could just allow employees of religious objectors to purchase subsidized coverage on the government’s own exchanges,” the brief states.

“But instead of these obvious and more direct approaches, the government continues to insist that the only way the United States could possibly distribute contraceptives is with the forced participation of the Little Sisters. … Thus the government seeks to coerce the Little Sisters to participate by giving information about its plan and plan administrators.”

As WND has reported, opposition to the birth-control mandate has generated more than 100 lawsuits by dozens of religious universities, 40 religious charities and a number of Bible publishers.

The Obama administration requires employers to provide contraceptives to employees, even if it violates their deeply held religious beliefs. While there have been hundreds of exemptions created for various interests and groups, the Obama administration refuses to allow the nuns to opt out.

Legal Counsel Daniel Blomberg told WND that because of their lifelong commitment to adhere to biblical teachings, “the Little Sisters can’t provide the drug themselves.”

“They can’t sign a form. They can’t do anything that allows their plan … to be hijacked to deliver the drugs.”

The government had filed a document in the case asking the court to speed up the process to force the nuns to provide contraceptives to employees.

”The Little Sisters cannot do that,” Blomberg told WND. “They are an order of Catholic nuns who are giving their entire lives to proclaiming the inviolate dignity of every person. They focus on the end of life, but they can’t allow their health plan to be hijacked for the beginning of life.”

He pointed out that an organization of Catholic bishops is exempted from the Obamacare demand, because the government assumes their employees agree with the religious pro-life perspective. But for the nuns, that assumption has vanished.

”That’s crazy,” he said. “It should make people’s heads spin.”

”The interim final rules … merely offer the Little Sisters another way to violate their religion,” the new brief argues. “If a Jewish prisoner objects to a steady diet of ham sandwiches on the grounds that he cannot eat pork products, it is no answer for the government to ‘augment’ the menu by adding the ‘alternatives’ of eating pork chops or bacon. Giving the prison a second (or third or fourth) way to do what his religion forbids does not change his case at all. … The same is true here. One way or another, the government continues to insist that the Little Sisters must comply … and facilitate the distribution of contraceptives.”

In this case, the court filing explains, the Little Sisters “have stated a clear religious objection to facilitating the distribution of contraceptives in connection with their plan in any way.”

“The government candidly admits that its newest revision is just an ‘augmentation’ that leaves its current objectionable system in place and merely added an ‘alternative’ that has the exact ‘same’ effect as before.”

At this point, a Supreme Court is preventing the government from assessing millions of dollars in fines against the nuns, and the argument is over the next steps for the appeals court. A district court judge had refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the government in the case.

The brief explains the mandate continues to violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because it “imposes a substantial burden on the Little Sisters’ undisputed religious exercise and is not the least restrictive means of serving a compelling government interests.”

The nuns’ beliefs includes respect for life.

”Among other things, this means that the Little Sisters cannot allow their health plan to facilitate, participate in, or partner with others in providing sterilization, contraception, or abortion,” the brief argues.

Continuing, it explains, “This is necessary not only to prevent complicity in grave sin, but also to avoid even appearing to condone wrongdoing, which would violate the Little Sisters’ public witness to the sanctity of human life.”

”Religious ministries in these cases serve tens of thousands of Americans, helping the poor and homeless and healing the sick. The Little Sisters of the Poor alone serve more than ten thousand of the elderly poor. These charities want to continue following their faith. They want to focus on ministry – such as sharing their faith and serving the poor – without worrying about the threat of massive IRS penalties,” said Adele Keim, counsel for Becket.

”The government has already exempted millions of Americans from this requirement for commercial or secular reasons, so it should certainly protect the Little Sisters for religious reasons.”

The organization reported that even though the U.S. Supreme Court required the Little Sisters to do nothing more than notify the government of their religious objection, the new regulations from the Obama administration include much more, “in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s order.”

”Merely offering the Little Sisters a different way to violate their religion does not ease their conscience,” said Keim. “Adding another layer of paperwork is a solution that only a bureaucrat could love. The federal government has many ways to deliver contraceptives. There’s no reason it should force nuns to do that for them; the First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act offer two very good reasons why it shouldn’t.”

There are several organizations, including Becket, that are fighting the government’s mandate, and the Alliance Defending Freedom, for one, said earlier that the government should not “force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students.”

The question presented in the Little Sisters case was whether any law, such as a nationwide health-care management system imposed by the government, can be so important that Washington can order people to violate their religious faith, in contradiction to the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“And regardless of what the trial court and the government think the Little Sisters should believe, the undisputed fact is that they do believe their religion forbids them from signing EBSA Form 700. It was not for the district court to disagree with the line drawn by the Little Sisters,” the nuns’ attorneys have argued in court.

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