Little Sisters of the Poor Argues It's Not Asking For 'Special Privileges' In Health Care Debate

The Colorado-based Little Sisters of the Poor religious institute has argued that they are not asking for special privileges after an appeals court ruled they must abide by the Affordable Care Act's requirements for contraceptive insurance coverage.

Sr. Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial of the religious institute, told The Christian Post in a recent interview that she and her fellow nuns "are not seeking special privileges" by asking to be completely exempt from providing contraceptives to their employees, even if that includes allowing a third insurance party to handle the birth control insurance coverage.

"The government exempts huge corporations, small businesses, and other religious ministries from what they are imposing on us — we are simply asking to carry on our mission to serve the elderly poor as we have always done for 175 years," Maguire said in a statement this week following the Denver appeals court's ruling.

"But the government forces us to either violate our conscience or take millions of dollars that we raise by begging for the care of the elderly poor and instead pay fines to the IRS," she added.

A three judge panel ruled this week that the Affordable Care Act does not violate the nuns' religious freedoms because it allows religious groups to be exempt from providing birth control to their employees by allowing a third party to handle the insurance transaction.

Maguire told The Denver Post this week that the nuns "simply cannot choose between our care for the elderly poor and our faith, and we should not have to make that choice because it violates our nation's commitment to ensuring that people from diverse faiths can freely follow God's calling in their lives."