The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday about whether religious charities like Little Sisters of the Poor should be forced to pay for contraception, including types that may cause abortions, in their employee health plans.

The nuns’ charity has been fighting in court for nearly eight years for relief from the Obamacare contraception mandate. After the Supreme Court gave them a temporary victory in 2016, Democrat leaders took the sisters back to court to challenge a new religious exemption from the Trump administration.

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“We are hopeful that the court will protect us as it did in 2016 and eager to be rid of this legal trouble which has hung over our ministry like a storm cloud for nearly a decade,” said Mother Loraine Marie Maguire of the Little Sisters of the Poor. “In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the lives of our residents face a real and imminent threat, we are more eager than ever to be able to care for our residents without being harassed by governments.”

In court Wednesday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office argued that the religious exemption is overly broad and could be burdensome to thousands of women.

Meanwhile, attorneys for the Trump administration and the Little Sisters contended that the contraception mandate violates the nuns’ religious liberty and jeopardizes their charity work for the poor and elderly.

Breitbart reports the justices seemed to divide along their typical conservative-liberal lines. Currently, there is a 5-4 conservative majority; and this is the first case related to the contraception mandate that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have heard since joining the court.

When asked what the Little Sisters would do if required to follow the mandate, lawyer Paul Clement said they would have to reconfigure their entire charity. He said there is “nothing they can do to come into compliance with the mandate.”

If the sisters refuse to comply, they could face crippling fines that could shut down their charity work.

However, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued against the exemption, claiming it would create an unfair burden on women who use contraception, according to Breitbart.

AFP News reports some politicians estimated about 70,000 women could lose contraception coverage if the exemption is upheld.

“You have just tossed entirely to the wind what Congress thought was essential, that women be provided these services with no hassle, no cost to them,” Ginsburg said.

However, Clement told the justices that lawyers challenging the religious exemption have not been able to identify a single woman who was ever denied contraception under the exemption.

(Excerpt from Life News. Article by Micaiah Bilger.)