‘Joe Biden’s decade-long war against Catholic nuns and the Little Sisters of the Poor is finally over…’
After the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in favor of faith-based organizations’ right to claim religious exemptions for contraceptives, Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden said that he would undo the exemption and force religious Americans to go back to court.
The ruling validated President Donald Trump’s executive policy change, undoing the Obama-era mandate that required employers to cover contraceptives in their health insurance plans.
The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns, litigated the Obama-era mandate for nearly 10 years before the Supreme Court finally ruled in their favor this week. But in a statement on Wednesday, Biden argued that the ruling undermines access to contraception and the legacy of the Affordable Care Act.
“If I am elected, I will restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed before the Hobby Lobby ruling: providing an exemption for houses of worship and an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious missions,” Biden said.
He was referencing an earlier Supreme Court case against the Christian-base craft chain Hobby Lobby, in which the justices decided 5-4 that family-owned corporations that run on religious principles are exempt from the contraceptive mandate.
Biden then claimed that removing religious exemptions, like those protected by the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling and its Little Sisters of the Poor ruling, would still allow for a balance between employers’ objections and access to contraceptives for women who want it.
“The accommodation will allow women at these organizations to access contraceptive coverage, not through their employer-provided plan, but instead through their insurance company or a third-party administrator,” he said.
The Trump campaign, however, said that Biden would use this supposed balance to declare “war” on charities that disagreed with the Obama/Biden administration.
“Joe Biden’s decade-long war against Catholic nuns and the Little Sisters of the Poor is finally over,” said Ali Pardo, the Trump 2020 campaign’s deputy communications director.
“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a landmark win for religious liberty,” Pardo said. “Unlike Joe Biden, President Trump has been a staunch defender of religious freedom since taking office and will always fight to defend communities of faith.”
