Little Sisters of the Poor Seek Women’s Rights

It’s amazing what is considered compassion and social justice these days.

An administration whose campaign hinged on “care for the needy” rhetoric won’t exempt a group of nuns — dedicating their lives to serving the elderly poor — from an unmerciful government mandate that forces them to provide for abortifacients and violates their religious freedom.

Tomorrow the Supreme Court will finally hear oral arguments in Zubik v. Burwell, the Little Sisters of the Poor and several other plaintiffs’ case against the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

There have been countless articles written either criticizing or commending the Little Sisters of the Poor. But I think the sisters said it best themselves in a recent New York Times opinion piece entitled, “Obamacare’s Birth-Control ‘Exemption’ Still Tramples on Rights.” Constance Veit, Director of Vocations for the Little Sisters of the Poor, wrote:

Our goal with this case is to have the freedom to follow our conscience in what we do and offer. The women who take the vows to become Little Sisters of the Poor do so out of deep love and religious conviction. We spend our days caring for, learning from, and serving those whom many in our society would prefer to forget. All we are asking is that the government allow us to continue that work.

As an Evangelical Christian woman, I stand in solidarity with the Little Sisters of the Poor. Not just because I affirm my charitable Catholic sisters in Christ and agree with their convictions on abortifacients and chemical contraception.

More than that, I stand with the Little Sisters of the Poor because their case is about real “women’s rights.” As Veit wrote, this is about “the women who take vows” to care for others society discards as burdensome. The sisters’ plea is about women—the ultimate self-sacrificing women in America—denied the most basic right to live and work according to their conscience free of government intrusion. These women seek justice so they can avoid crippling fines and in-turn continue to do justice and show mercy. If the Little Sisters of the Poor lose, all American women lose.

These women of faith are fighting for their freedom. All because our heavy-handed government is more consumed with pushing contraception rather than protecting religious freedom.

God help a nation whose government is willing to sacrifice the convictions of compassionate nuns for the sake of the Pill.