Who would attack a bunch of nuns? Fanatical abortion advocates, that’s who. Thus, the Little Sisters of the Poor find themselves once again on the losing end of a court case over contraception.
Why does this happen to women who believe contraception is wrong and, on top of that, who’ve taken vows of celibacy?
Because you might argue that the Left is one big sex cult. The things that matter most to leftists are who they have sex with, how they feel about their genitalia, and what happens with children conceived through sex (or the biological components of reproductive organs manipulated in a lab). They want you to be as excited as they are about all those things — to not only grant tolerance but hearty approval and participation. They have a pathological need for validation.
Back to the Little Sisters of the Poor, on Wednesday, Judge Wendy Beetlestone, chief judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, struck down a 2017 regulation issued by Donald Trump’s first administration expanding religious exemptions for ObamaCare’s contraception mandate. Beetlestone called the rule “arbitrary and capricious.”
That’s a far more apt description for the ObamaCare mandate that private insurance policies (in this case for nuns!) cover “essential health benefits,” including “preventative and wellness services” like pills that terminate the lives of unborn children.
With the rule now vacated, National Review explains, “Religious non-profit and for-profit organizations would need to file accommodation requests with HHS to avoid paying for their staff’s contraception. Even if such a request is accepted, a religious organization’s employees would still be guaranteed access to contraception through their employer-sponsored health insurance.”
Political analyst David Harsanyi expounds on the problem with the term “exemption”: “The very idea that an American citizen should be impelled to ask the state for an ‘exemption’ to practice their faith is an assault on the fundamental idea of liberty. Imagine having to ask the state for an exemption to exercise your free speech?”
Beyond the ridiculousness of requiring nuns (or anyone else, for that matter) to pay for contraception is the fact that the Little Sisters already won a similar case before the Supreme Court — twice. In 2016, a Supreme Court bereft of the late Antonin Scalia issued a unanimous 8-0 ruling in favor of religious liberty. It was a limited ruling, however, granting temporary relief for the Little Sisters by vacating lower court rulings against them, while sending the case back down with instructions for consideration.
A year later, the Trump administration, via the Department of Health and Human Services, issued a rule protecting the Little Sisters and other similar organizations from government coercion and infringement of their religious liberty. Multiple states, led by Pennsylvania and New Jersey, challenged the rule as having violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Affordable Care Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Well then.
In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania that the administration “had the authority under the ACA to promulgate the religious and moral exemptions” and that the “rules promulgating the exemptions are free from procedural defects.” Notably, the Court overturned Beetlestone’s nationwide injunction against the rule.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey didn’t give up because leftists never stop fighting to control people. This time, Beetlestone circumvented two prior Supreme Court rulings — three if you count Hobby Lobby’s 2014 victory against the contraception mandate — by ignoring its reasoning and finding her own separate bones to pick.
“It is absurd to think the Little Sisters might need yet another trip to the Supreme Court to end what has now been more than a dozen years of litigation over the same issue,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters. “We will fight as far as we need to fight to protect the Little Sisters’ right to care for the elderly in peace.”
Allowing Catholics (and other pro-lifers) to be at peace is not what abortion zealots want. Whether it’s physically assaulting them outside of clinics, vandalizing churches and pro-life centers, siccing the FBI on them, or suing nuns to force the pill on them, the pro-abortion radicals demand subservience. It’s the same with the other sex-cult adherents who force Christians to bake cakes and provide other services for same-sex weddings. Colorado baker Jack Phillips is also still fighting for his religious liberty in court.
Validate me — or else, they say, while calling conservatives Nazis.
Ironically, their lack of self-awareness rivals their self-obsession.
Clearly, it’s time for Congress to step in. While I would prefer that Congress repeal ObamaCare entirely as an unconstitutional monstrosity, that’s unlikely. What may be possible, however, is legislation reigning in some of its particular abuses, like the contraception mandate.
