A Ray of Sunshine for Poor Women and Religious Liberty

The following was contributed by Carol Rose, and originally posted on Boston.com's On Liberty blog.

If you are outraged at the ease with which Washington power-brokers of all political stripes are ready to sacrifice reproductive medical care for poor women in return for political gain, here’s a ray of sunshine from that critical third branch of government -- the U.S. courts.

A judge in Boston ruled yesterday that taxpayers can challenge a government program that uses tax dollars to impose religious doctrine on victims of human trafficking. In a victory for religious liberty, the judge is permitting the case to proceed against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for selecting the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to dole out government money under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Here’s the problem: government officials picked the Catholic Bishops group to administer the program even after they were told that the organization would impose Catholic religious restrictions on medical providers seeking funding to support medical services for victims of human trafficking. Each year, more than 14,000 people, mostly women, are trafficked into the United States, mainly for sexual exploitation. Amazingly, government officials permitted the Catholic Bishops to restrict the distribution of these public funds to medical service providers who promise not to supply victims of trafficking with emergency contraception, contraception services, abortion services, or even referrals.

To be sure, the Catholic Church and other religious denominations have played a historically significant role in promoting social justice and taking on the gritty work of poverty alleviation in this country. Indeed, consider the 59,000 Catholic nuns who recently marched for comprehensive health care reform.

Moreover, the Bishops have every right under the First Amendment to teach that the rhythm method and adoption are spiritually superior to contraception and abortion. With their own funds, they also can refuse to provide services that violate their religious beliefs. That’s their religious right.

But if the Bishops want to get in the business of administering government programs with taxpayer money, a different set of rules apply. They don’t get to use tax dollars to run programs that deny medical advice or services to people based on their religious creed. That’s unconstitutional.

The underlying facts of this case are particularly outrageous since the people being denied medical care are victims of human trafficking. It seems the Bishops would deny needed services to the poorest of the poor, often women and children who have been victimized by the human slave trade and, too often, are victims of rape and sexual abuse, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases.

When Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, it did not impose limits on health care services to be provided to these needy people. Yet, the Department of Health and Human Services has been misusing the funds by allowing certain religious doctrines to be imposed on providers. And that’s just plain wrong.

If the Catholic Bishops want to get into the business of doling out tax dollars, they have to play by the same rules as other government service providers -- and keep their religion out of it.

Learn more about this case from our news release at www.aclum.org.