SCOTUS Sides With Nuns Fighting New York Mandate That Made Them Pay For Abortions

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of nuns fighting against New York’s abortion mandate that forced religious organizations to pay for employee abortions.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic organization that serves the elderly, fought the state on its abortion mandate that violates religious liberties for years, but multiple New York courts have ruled in favor of the abortion mandate.

New York mandated in 2017 that employers pay for “not just abortifacients, but even surgical abortions” as part of employee health care. The state had indicated that it would protect religious groups, but “narrowed the exemption to protect only religious entities that primarily employ and serve people of their own faith,” according to Becket Religious Liberty for All. The only religious exemption was for “religious groups that primarily teach religion and primarily serve and hire those who share their faith,” a Becket press release said.

In response Catholic nuns led a group of religious groups spanning different denominations who banded together to push back against the state forcing Christians to provide insurance plans that pay for killing babies as “health care.”

The mandate “violat[ed] their deepest religious convictions about the sanctity of life,” according to Becket. “New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel of Becket. (Read more from “SCOTUS Sides With Nuns Fighting New York Mandate That Made Them Pay For Abortions” HERE)

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