ACLU sues US Bishops: If you take refugee resettlement money then you must accept abortion
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops receives millions of dollars each year to place thousands of refugees (including many Muslims in your towns) and we have long argued that your tax dollars should not be paid to federal contractors masquerading as religious charities.
So no sympathy here as the ACLU files suit against the Bishops for accepting taxpayer dollars and then restricting abortions and contraceptive availability to the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ in their care. When they take Caesar’s money, they must follow Caesar’s rules! They can’t have it both ways!
From Life News.com:
For decades, U.S. Catholic agencies have been on the front lines helping to provide young immigrants and refugees with the physical and emotional support they need after they arrive in America.
But a new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union could put the much-needed aid programs in jeopardy.
The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arguing that the government should not give money to the Catholic aid programs because they do not refer or provide abortions or birth control to young, unaccompanied minor refugees and immigrants, the New York Times reports. The ACLU argues in the lawsuit that the agencies are legally required to provide access to contraception and abortion because they receive government funding.
[….]
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,which oversees the agencies, received almost $10 million in government funding to help unaccompanied minor immigrants and refugees in 2014, according to the report.
[….]
ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Brigitte Amiri said, “We are shocked and deeply concerned to see history repeating itself with millions of taxpayer dollars funneled into the hands of a religious group that has a long history of refusing critical health care services to the most vulnerable people in their care.”
This “critical health care” is talking about abortion, which, by not supporting, lets the group “impose their religious beliefs on others,” according to the ACLU.
The Bishops should oppose this naked power grab. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) does more good than any gov’t agency, and the ACLU lefties want to over-rule Church doctrine. They never heard of the separation of Church and State.