Little Sisters of the Poor again appeal for protection from contraceptive rule

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Little Sisters of the Poor appealed an August ruling from a federal district court that struck down a religious conscience rule, their legal representatives said Dec. 15.

The rule, implemented by the first Trump administration, exempted employers with religious or moral concerns from having to provide their employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives and other drugs or procedures to which they have an objection. 

The appeal, filed Dec. 12 by Becket with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, the religious liberty law firm representing the Little Sisters of the Poor in their ongoing legal efforts over their objections to paying for abortifacient drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives in their employee health plans, noted the Little Sisters won protection against the federal government at the Supreme Court in 2016.

Oral argument in the case is expected in early 2026. 

“The fourteen-year legal crusade against the Little Sisters has been needless, grotesque, and un-American,” Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters, said in a statement. “The States have no business trying to take away the Little Sisters’ federal civil rights. The Third 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.” 

In 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a federal mandate requiring most employers to provide contraceptive drugs in their health insurance plans. The mandate included a narrow religious exemption for entities such as churches, but did not include religious nonprofits.

After requesting and being denied an exemption due to the Catholic Church’s teaching against drugs such as the morning-after pill, the Little Sisters filed a lawsuit. Their effort ultimately became part of the consolidated case Zubik v. Burwell, a 2016 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent the case back to lower courts, but effectively was in the Little Sisters’ favor.

The federal government later finalized new exceptions that would include entities like the Little Sisters. However, Pennsylvania and New Jersey challenged those rules, arguing they were improperly expanded. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a narrow procedural ruling siding with the Little Sisters, but their suit has continued.

In August, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia found the Trump administration’s rule, which expanded the parameters for the types of nonprofits that could use the exception, was not necessary to protect the conscience rights of religious employers. Beetlestone struck down the rule.

But Mother Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor said in a statement, “For nearly 200 years, our order has welcomed the elderly poor and dying into our homes as we would welcome Christ Himself.” 

“It is painful that we have spent more than a decade defending that mission in court. We simply want to continue our work without being forced to violate our faith, and we pray Pennsylvania and New Jersey will end this needless harassment,” she said.  

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