ACLU of Mass v. Sebelius

We’ve just concluded an exciting day in court, where the ACLU of Massachusetts (led by National ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri) argued before a judge in the ACLU v. Sebelius case, which centers on the core issue of freedom to access reproductive health care and the separation of church and state.

Here’s a brief excerpt from our recent news release on the case:

“The ACLU filed the case earlier this year against HHS for permitting the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to use taxpayer money to impose religiously based restrictions on reproductive health services in the U.S. government's trafficking victims program.

Since April 2006, HHS has awarded USCCB from $2.5 million to $3.5 million annually to make grants to organizations that provide direct services to trafficking victims under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act. HHS did this knowing that USCCB prohibits, based on its religious beliefs, grantees from using any of the federal funds to provide or refer for contraceptive or abortion services, even though the Trafficking Victims Protection Act contains no such restrictions.”

Both sides argued before Judge Richard G. Stearns this afternoon. Amiri (who is a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project) gave a stirring argument that taxpayer money should not go to an organization that is denying important care to victims – for explicitly religious reasons.

See our Legal brief here, and stay tuned for more news on the case!