Mother Loraine's Statement after oral argument in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

My name is Mother Loraine Marie Maguire and I serve as one of three Regional Superiors for the Little Sisters of the Poor in the United States. For more than 175 years, we Little Sisters have dedicated ourselves to serving the elderly poor regardless of race or religion, offering them a home where they are welcomed as Christ, cared for as family and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to Himself.

For nearly a decade we have been in a battle for the soul of our ministry. The government’s contraceptive mandate directed us to provide contraceptives and life-ending drugs in our health care plan or pay millions of dollars in fines—which would have crippled our ministry. We could not comply with the mandate. To do so would undermine our most important belief—that all life is valuable. We cannot hold the hands of the elderly dying while at the same time facilitating the ending of unborn life. After two favorable Supreme Court rulings and a new government rule, a coalition of states dragged us back to court to defend our hard-won religious exemption.

For seven years, this unnecessary legal battle has hung over our ministry like a storm cloud.

Today, we asked the Court to protect us, and all faith-based ministries that rely on religious exemptions, once and for all. Thank you for your support over these seven years. We are hopeful that this will be the conclusion of our case, and the last time that this political fight interferes with our calling from God—to care for our beloved residents.