The ACLU
announced last Friday that it plans to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain documents relating to HHS Administration for Children and Families' contracts with Catholic Charities and other religious organizations for care of refugee and undocumented minors. ACLU claims that these organizations are restricting refugee and undocumented immigrant teenagers' access to reproductive health services, including contraception and abortion. An ACLU staff attorney said:
We believe deeply in religious freedom. But religious freedom does not include the right to take a government contract that requires providing access to health care, and then refuse to provide a teen who has been raped the health care she needs.
The ACLU added:
Recently, the federal government released proposed regulations requiring federal contractors who care for unaccompanied minors to provide access to contraception, emergency contraception, and abortion if a teen has been raped. In response, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of the groups that received a government-funded contract to provide care to these teens, said any requirement that they provide information about contraception or abortion, even a referral or the arrangement for such services, would violate their religious freedom.
[Thanks to Will Esser via Religionlaw for the lead.]
