Today, the Supreme Court is hearing a case, Little Sisters of The Poor Saints Peter And Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, concerning whether the state can force pro-life or Christian organizations to pay for abortifacient birth control. This stems from a mandate under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) that all employers provide birth control. The Supreme Court had previously ruled on an exemption from the mandate, but the lawsuit is over President Trump’s executive order further expanding their exemption.
Sarah Jane Woods, the Students for Life leader at Creighton University recently blasted the abortion industry for trying to force Catholic universities to pay for birth control. She told thelily.com, a project of Washington Post, “It would violate the conscience of Creighton and all other Catholic schools to be forced to provide coverage for this” she noted, and said that students have “free will” to attend colleges that do or do not provide birth control.
For many Christians, birth control, especially hormonal birth control which can cause an abortion, is problematic for both moral reasons relating to the the purpose of sex, but also because of the abortifacient nature of hormonal birth control.
Writing for Fox News, the Little Sisters of the Poor argue, “We Little Sisters are called to radically love the elderly poor, caring for them in their frailty as we would Christ Himself. It is with this zeal that we will return to the Supreme Court – after seven years of unwanted litigation – to ask the court to protect our ministry and end our legal battle once and for all.
As Catholics, we believe in the inherent dignity of every life from the moment of conception to natural death. That’s why we spend every day accompanying some of the most vulnerable members of our society – holding their hands through the final years, days and moments on this Earth…On Wednesday we will return to the Supreme Court as one of the ten historic cases chosen for the first telephonic arguments the court has ever held. Lawyers until now have appeared in person before the high court for oral arguments, but the court is hearing cases by phone due to the coronavirus pandemic, and will livestream the arguments for the first time.
The federal government and our brilliant attorneys will ask the Supreme Court justices to end this needless battle and protect our ministry from the contraceptive mandate once and for all.” You can read the full op-ed here.
