The radical pro-abortion group NARAL has no qualms about trampling on the rights of vulnerable unborn babies. The group openly advocates for legalized abortion for any reason through all nine months of pregnancy.
So, it should come as little surprise that the group also wants the government to deny religious rights to a group of nuns who oppose certain provisions of the Obamacare HHS Mandate.
The Little Sisters of the Poor are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure they do not have to comply with the mandate, which compels religious groups to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions. Without relief, the Little Sisters would face millions of dollars in IRS fines for failing to comply with the government mandate.
However, NARAL believes the nuns should be forced to violate their religious beliefs and comply with the mandate. The pro-abortion group’s vice president Donna Crane said the nuns’ order should not be exempted from the mandate because it does not qualify as “a religious organization,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“The Little Sisters of the Poor is a good example because they employ people of all faiths and no faith, and the mission that they undertake serves people of all faiths and no faith,” Crane said Friday morning on CSPAN’s Washington Journal. “This is not a religious enterprise, this is very much a social service organization.”
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“If they’re not a religious organization, and they’re not, they’re carrying out a secular mission, it’s not right that they should be able to impose those views on someone else,” she added.
Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily protected the Little Sisters from the mandate. The Little Sisters then went before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to extend that protection, but a panel of the appeals court ruled against them. Eventually the full appeals court ruled in its favor, but the Obama administration appealed.
“As Little Sisters of the Poor, we offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they are welcomed as Christ. We perform this loving ministry because of our faith and cannot possibly choose between our care for the elderly poor and our faith, and we shouldn’t have to,” said Sr. Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor. “All we ask is that our rights not be taken away. The government exempts large corporations, small businesses, and other religious ministries from what they are imposing on us – we just want to keep serving the elderly poor as we have always done for 175 years. We look forward to the Supreme Court hearing our case, and pray for God’s protection of our ministry.”
The order could face $70 million in government fines for refusing to violate their beliefs. The high court plans to hear the Little Sisters’ case in March of this year.
A brief, which was filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and former Solicitor General Paul Clement earlier this month, chides the government for its “deceptive labels and diversionary tactics” designed to falsely suggest that the Little Sisters can “opt out” of the mandate.
“The Little Sisters spend their lives taking care of the neediest members of our society —that is work our government should applaud, not punish,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel for the law group. “The Little Sisters should not have to fight their own government to get an exemption it has already given to thousands of other employers, including big companies like Exxon and Pepsi Cola Bottling Company.”
