The Little Sisters of the Poor marched Friday in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., standing up to abortion and the assault on religious liberty their community has experienced at the hands of the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, which requires they provide contraception and abortion-inducing drugs to their employees through health insurance plans.
The Little Sisters – whose ministry is to the elderly poor – regularly participate in the pro-life march, and this year highlighted their fight against the Obamacare mandate with buttons that read simply, “I’ll have nun of it,” reported the Washington Examiner.
This month, a coalition of religious leaders of all faiths and more than 200 members of Congress – mostly Republicans with a handful of Democrats – filed friend of the court briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the nuns. The briefs were filed in Zubik v. Burwell, in which the High Court will decide whether the Little Sisters of the Poor and other similar ministries can be forced to alter their healthcare plans to offer drugs that violate their religious beliefs.
“We are overjoyed and deeply grateful for the diverse outpouring of support we have received from such a variety of people and groups,” said Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial for the Little Sisters of the Poor, in a statement. “We have been serving the elderly poor for over 175 years and are simply asking the government to allow us to continue our life’s work without being forced to choose between our faith and millions in government fines.”
Sister Loraine and Sister Constance Veit were invited by House Speaker Paul Ryan to the 2016 State of the Union address.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represents the Sisters in their case against the Obama administration.
On November 6, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the case of the Little Sisters. The Becket Fund urged the High Court on January 4 to protect the sisters from the $70 million dollars in government fines for refusing to violate their Catholic faith. This is the second time the Sisters have asked the Supreme Court for protection from the Obama administration.
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