Little Sisters of the Poor Appeals Birth Control Mandate with U.S. Supreme Court

The Colorado-based Little Sisters of the Poor order of nuns has formally filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking to be exempt from providing birth control insurance coverage to employees through the Affordable Care Act.

The Denver-based order of nuns is asking to be exempt from the current religious exemption that exists with the Affordable Care Act that allows religious institutions to sign over birth control coverage to a third person insurance company so they don't have to directly provide contraceptive coverage to employees.

Little Sisters of the Poor argues that signing over the coverage to a third party still involves them in the process of providing birth control coverage to employees.

"The Little Sisters of the Poor are Catholic nuns who devote their lives to caring for the elderly poor. The government has put them to the impossible choice of either violating the law or violating the faith upon which their lives and ministry are based," the appeal to the Supreme Court reads.

 "HHS insists that the Little Sisters must comply with a mandate that their employee healthcare plans 'provide coverage' for free contraceptives. Although there is no dispute that the Little Sisters sincerely believe that all the available compliance methods would make them morally complicit in grave sin, HHS refuses to give them the exemption it has given other religious employers, and instead requires them to comply," the order of nuns adds.

In early July, the Little Sister of the Poor lost their appeal with the Colorado's 10th District Circuit of Appeals, which wrote in its three-judge opinion that the Affordable Care Act's religious exemption does not infringe upon the religious freedoms of the order of nuns.