David vs. Goliath: Nuns Clash With HHS Huns

The Little Sisters of the Poor, a diminutive Catholic religious order, is waging a legal battle against the behemoth federal government over Obamacare provisions that trample their religious freedom. The nuns' courageous action was launched only after an out-of-court settlement was dismissed by the feds.

One one side of this issue stand compassionate women who run 30 homes for the needy elderly in the United States and Canada.  The Little Sisters of the Poor, founded in 1839, provide the service free of charge to more than 13,000 men and women, regardless of faith.

Their mission is summed up succinctly by Sister Mary Bernard.  "The elderly are at risk with no one to speak up for them, no one to stand up and to express to the world and show the world these people are still valuable," she explained. People of such strong faith threaten autocratic governments.    

The sisters' sin was to refuse to violate their consciences to comply with heavy-handed Health and Human Services Department rules.  The department demanded the nuns direct their health insurance carrier to include coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and contraceptives.

This assault on religious freedom was never supposed to happen.  As the rules for health care reform were being drafted, President Obama unequivocally promised Christian leaders that they would be exempt from regulations requiring health coverage to include abortion drugs and contraceptives.

Like so many Obama assurances, it proved to be false.  Once the rules became public, the administration ruthlessly pursued religious-affiliated organizations to make them tow the line.  It dragged businesses and health care providers to court over the regulation, losing 53 of 60 cases.

But that didn't deter HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and her bully bureaucrats from goose-stepping into court to challenge the Little Sisters of the Poor.  The nuns tried to reach an accommodation but tyrannical Sibelius turned thumbs down, leaving the sisters with a lawsuit as their only recourse.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are facing hefty fines if they refuse to bow to the hectoring bureaucrats.  They will be coerced into paying fines of $100 per employee per day, adding up to millions of dollars per year.  Collecting from the sisters might be a problem, since they take vows of poverty.  

How can this be happening in a country that has always prized religious freedom?  This is what unfolds when too many Americans, including their elected representatives, remain silent while the government usurps religious liberty to prove it can do whatever it wants as long as the goal can be justified.

For the government, this case is all about power.  Sebelius and Obama know that each exception on religious grounds weakens their grand plan to strong-arm everyone to sign on the dotted line for government-approved health insurance plans. If it means hunting down nuns, then it's justified.

Common sense prevailed when Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted an eleventh-hour reprieve to the nuns only hours before the calendar flipped over to 2014.  But the injunction is only temporary because the sisters' case remains on appeal before a federal court in Colorado.

Once Sotomayor's ruling was released, a defiant Obama Administration assured everyone that it was confident the mandate would be upheld.  The taxpayer-supported government is determined to bankrupt the Little Sisters of the Poor by suing their foe into submission.

Meanwhile, the Little Sisters of the Poor go about their chosen vocation of ministering to the elderly.  All the while, the Obama Administration keeps hounding the nuns.  If Obama wins, freedom will suffer another defeat at the hands of a president determined to punish religious beliefs in the name of big government.