Democrats Continue Crusade Against Little Sisters of The Poor

For the past 15 years, Democrats have waged a relentless legal assault on the Little Sisters of the Poor over the Catholic charity’s religious opposition to birth control. They just doubled down on their anti-Christian crusade once again.

The Little Sisters of the Poor is an international Roman Catholic congregation of women founded in 1839 by Saint Jeanne Jugan in France. They dedicate their lives to providing care for the impoverished elderly, operating dozens of homes globally. They rely heavily on donations, public benefits, and whatever resources residents can provide.

By all accounts, the Little Sisters are one of the most kind and compassionate groups anywhere in the world. But on July 7, they found themselves back in court, this time at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Represented by the Becket Fund, the nuns were facing off against Pennsylvania and New Jersey over religious liberty exemptions to the Obamacare birth control mandate.

The case stems from the 2011 Obamacare mandate that required many, but not all, employers to provide birth control to their employees.

While large secular corporations easily received exemptions, many religious entities did not. The birth control mandate conflicts with official Catholic Church doctrine, which opposes all forms of artificial contraception. The mandate also requires that employers cover emergency contraception (also known as the “morning after” or “Plan B”) pill, which can abort a viable pregnancy.

Over the years, the Little Sisters have challenged the Obamacare mandates in court and won multiple legal victories – although that hasn’t stopped Democrats from attempting to bury the group in lawsuits and legal fees.

“The Little Sisters won protection against the government at SCOTUS in 2013 and 2016, and through a Trump Administration religious conscience rule in 2017,” Lori Windham, an attorney with the Becket Fund, explained. “But states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued to take away the Sisters’ federal conscience rights. So the Little Sisters took their case back up to SCOTUS, and in 2020 secured their third victory over this issue.”

But now the legal odyssey continues because Democrat leaders in New Jersey and Pennsylvania refuse to grant religious conscience rights to Christian organizations.

The Democrat states are specifically challenging a Trump administration rule which allows employers with “moral or religious objections” to be exempted from the Obamacare birth control mandate, according to the National Catholic Register. Attorneys for New Jersey and Pennsylvania convinced an activist judge in August 2025 to block the rule.

During the hearing on July 7, Aimee Thomson, an attorney for the two Democrat-run states, “expressed concerns over employers potentially getting exemptions even though their objections are not sincere,” the Register reported. Thomson admitted she did not know if any women had actually been unable to obtain birth control because of an “insincere” objection and then complained of the “burden” women would face from having to figure out how to challenge their employer’s religious objection to providing birth control.

But it is unclear whether there is any real burden, according to the Becket Fund.

Pennsylvania has its own contraceptive programs and “never challenged the Obama Administration for creating much larger exceptions for secular corporations,” the group wrote in a summary. In other words, Pennsylvania apparently only has an issue with Christian groups seeking an exemption from the mandate.

“Additionally, Pennsylvania does not even have its own contraceptive mandate at all, and its lawsuit does not identify a single real person who previously had contraceptive coverage but will lose it because of the new rule,” the legal group argued.

In a clear sign of anti-religious animus, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also make the case that the Trump administration rule is flawed because it provides too much religious freedom. They argue the exemptions go beyond the requirement of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which mandates that if the government does restrict religious practice, it must prove it has a compelling interest and is using the least restrictive means to achieve that goal.

But this argument falls flat. Prior to 2011, there was no federal birth control mandate. It is difficult to see how an exemption to a mandate is somehow more onerous and burdensome than not having the mandate at all.

A review of similar cases throughout the country, however, reveals that Democrats are more concerned with targeting Christians than protecting religious liberty – even to the point of blatantly violating the Constitution. In 2023, Illinois Democrats were forced to stop targeting pregnancy resource centers following a federal lawsuit against a law that a judge called “both stupid and very likely unconstitutional.” Oregon Right to Life also recently won a “narrow victory” against a Democrat law that would force it to cover abortion in its health insurance plan.

The Little Sisters’ heroic work caring for society’s most vulnerable exposes the shocking hypocrisy of liberal elites. While claiming to champion the marginalized, Democrats ruthlessly target pious nuns who provide free care to poor seniors.

The reason for the left’s obsession with taking down the Little Sisters is simple but chilling: abortion and birth control are two of the most important sacraments of the left’s secular religion, and it is a religion that does not tolerate heretics. But as long as there are faithful people willing to fight back against the forces seeking to stifle and eradicate Christian faith from public life, there is hope.

Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.