Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 15, 2025 / 18:06 pm (CNA).
The 14-year legal battle against federal contraceptive mandates will continue, with Little Sisters of the Poor and the federal government seeking to reinstate moral and religious exemptions that were established in 2017.
Little Sisters of the Poor have already won religious freedom cases on this subject twice at the Supreme Court level. The high court ruled in 2016 that the federal government must protect religious freedoms for those who oppose the contraceptives and in 2020 ruled that the federal government had the legal authority to adopt the broad exemptions established in 2017.
Those exemptions fully covered employers that had religious or moral objections to providing the contraceptives, some of which can be abortifacient. Under the rules, those employers were not required to include any contraceptive coverage in their insurance plans for employees.
In spite of the prior Supreme Court wins, a federal court in August 2025 struck down the 2017 exemptions on grounds that the Supreme Court had not yet ruled on.
Because the Supreme Court left some questions open, the attorneys general in two states that disapprove of the exemptions — Pennsylvania and New Jersey — continued their legal battle on different grounds. Those legal arguments allege that the adoption of the rules did not comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which the Supreme Court had not ruled on.
In the August ruling, Judge Wendy Beetlestone found that the rules did not comply with the APA, ruling instead that the rules are arbitrary and capricious.
“The agencies’ actions in promulgating the rule were arbitrary and capricious — in that they failed to ‘articulate a satisfactory explanation for [their] action[s] including a ‘rational connection between the facts found and the choices made,’” Beetlestone wrote in her opinion.
Little Sisters of the Poor are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, whose lawyers say the appellate court should overturn that decision and bring the legal dispute to an end.
“The 14-year legal crusade against the Little Sisters has been needless, grotesque, and un-American,” Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the sisters, said in a statement.
“The states have no business trying to take away the Little Sisters’ federal civil rights. The 3rd Circuit should toss the states’ lawsuit into the dustbin of history and uphold the protection the Little Sisters already won at the Supreme Court … twice,” he said.
In the appeal, the lawyers cite the legal precedent from the 2016 and 2020 cases that required religious exemptions and upheld the rules. They warn that the August 2025 ruling could create a “constitutional conflict” because the original mandate cannot legally be reimposed.
“The appellee states maintain that state governments somehow have an interest in forcing the federal government to force religious objectors to comply with the federal contraceptive mandate — even though the federal government need not have any contraceptive mandate at all, and even though the states themselves have chosen not to have such mandates of their own,” the lawsuit notes.
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Why did Biden issue a fatwa against the Little Sisters of the Poor? I thought Biden was a faithful Catholic. Maybe not.
Why are the Little Sisters opposed to contraception anyway? Just askin’.
Because they’re faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic faiyh and from what you’ve written we can safely conclude that you are not.
Do you know that the “Pill’s” chemicals are in the water supply?
Not to mention that an Administration Agency lacks the authority to make new Law, and I suppose since the Mandate was ruled to be a “tax”, new Tax Law that mandates the purchasing of contraception coverage, which certainly is not necessary or proper.
P.S. No doubt, such a mandate would be a violation of both Religious Liberty , and thus The First Amendment, and excessive fines, and thus The Eighth Amendment!
DeaconEP above (10:57 a.m.) – Don’t jump to conclusions.
Cleo: Then go ahead and answer the question you posed:”Why are the Little Sisters opposed to contraception anyway?”
If you’re interested in the topic of why the Church is opposed to contraception, you might consider the book Sexual Wisdom by Richard Wetzel, MD or New Perspectives on Contraception by Donald DeMarco, PhD. Both can be obtained over at onemoresould.com. Or pretty much anything by Janet Smith, PhD, on the subject.
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A partial library of Father Anthony Zimmerman, SVD (who passed away some time ago) can be found over at lifeissues.net, Contraception if Creeping Death being a very good article, IMO
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DeaconEP and Mrs. Hess – I think many people don’t understand why the Little Sisters are waging this battle. Of course, like Piers Morgan, they probably view them (the Sisters) as extremists.
I gave you some resources to consider. If you choose too. And if you care to spread them on to others who wonder by the Church is opposed to contraception, that would be nice.
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Mrs. Hess – I believe you miss my point. I think most people, including many (most?) Catholics don’t understand the Church’s opposition to contraception. Okay, we are told some contraceptives may be abortifacients. Opposition to abortion people understand. Contraception, not so much.
Cleo: Because love between a man and a woman in marriage is intended to be faithful (exclusive), forever and FRUITFUL. Anything that interferes with these is CONTRARY to marriage. For example, adultery violates the pledge to be FAITHFUL; divorce and remarriage violates the promise that the marriage be FOREVER; contraception violates the promise that the marital union be open to being FRUITFUL. This is ŵhat the basic MEANING of marriage entails. This is what Catholics are called to believe about sacramental marriage. The Little Sisters are Catholic and strive to live their lives individually and collectively as faithful Catholics. They don’t want the government to force them to live their lives contrary to their Catholic faith. This is what Obama and the very un-Catholic Biden tried to shove down their throats.
“I believe you miss my point. I think most people, including many (most?) Catholics don’t understand the Church’s opposition to contraception.”
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As noted above, you’ve been given resources to help understand the issue.
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Have a good week-end
DeaconEP above (2:27 a.m.) – You’re not hearing what I’m saying.
It’s easy for people to dismiss the Little Sisters’ opposition to contraception since presumably it doesn’t affect them. Opposition to abortion and lack of religious freedom, people understand. But opposition to contraception? That’s a bridge too far.
And BTW, many (most?) people, including many (again, most?) Catholics, think contraception is the antidote to abortion.
Cleo: Most Catholics (as the vast majority of people in general) are simply ignorant about the purpose of sexuality. Admittedly, when people are practical atheists it’s even more likely that this purpose would elude them.