The Little Sisters of the Poor received a Christmas blessing earlier this week that could help them end their nearly 14-year battle for religious freedom with the United States government.
On Monday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a Notice in the Federal Register indicating that it has chosen to withdraw rule changes to the contraception mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
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Rule changes proposed by the Biden administration last year would have prohibited nuns and other religious organizations from claiming exemptions from the ACA’s requirement that employers provide abortion and contraception coverage in their employee health plans.
HHS stated that it decided to withdraw the rules proposed by the Biden administration so that the government could “focus its time and resources on matters other than finalizing these rules.” The health agency also cited extensive feedback it received on the proposed changes as reasons to hold back on imposing the alterations.
The notice adds that “if departments decide in the future that it is a priority to move forward with rulemaking in this area,” it wants to “ensure that they will have the benefit of the most up-to-date facts and information on these important issues,” while respecting religious objections to contraception.
Religious freedom advocacy group Becket celebrated the victory this week. “Christmas came a little early this year,” the organization, which has represented the nuns in court, stated in a social media post Monday.
Becket pointed to a Wall Street Journal column published by Catholic writer William McGurn, who wrote on December 23 that the nuns hoped for “an end to the legal war against them.”
McGurn described religious freedom as a “historic pillar of American liberalism” and “the heart of any liberal order and the key to civic peace.”
The nuns’ more than decade-long court battle dates back to 2011, when Barack Obama’s administration required employers to provide free coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations and “emergency birth control” in employee health plans. under the ACA.
Although the sisters have celebrated two successes at the Supreme Court, in 2016 y 2020are still fighting for their religious freedom in the district courts of California and Pennsylvania, which have continued to take legal action to rescind religious exemptions granted to religious women by the United States Supreme Court.
“With Becket’s help, (the sisters) defeated the federal government in (the U.S. Supreme Court) not once but twice and are still in court defending their ministry against a group of states led by California and Pennsylvania,” continued Becket in X.
“Those court battles have been frozen for years because of the new contraceptive mandate rule that the Biden administration kept promising to issue.”
In light of the latest development, Becket further drew attention to the possibility that the sisters could potentially see a “final victory.”
“California and Pennsylvania have no business suing the Little Sisters when presidential administrations of both parties have granted religious exemptions to the sisters,” the religious liberty firm added.
“One last thought: suing nuns is never a good idea,” the group concluded.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Low tide Elhabbal
Madalaine Elhabbal is a CNA journalist based in EWTN’s Washington DC bureau. She has published articles on CatholicVote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.