The Little Sisters of the Poor spent fourteen years fighting the Obama administration to keep caring for the elderly on their own terms.
Now Kathy Hochul is picking up where a decade of Democrat attacks on nuns left off.
What her new law forces them to do inside their own homes crosses a bright red line.
Hochul's Medical Aid in Dying Act Gives Catholic Nuns a Choice Between Faith and Fines
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have served roughly 45,000 low-income cancer patients at their Rosary Hill Home over 125 years.
Rosary Hill charges patients nothing and takes no federal money.
In over 125 years of operation, the state has never once cited them for anything.
None of that matters to New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul.
Her Medical Aid in Dying Act, signed in February and set to take effect August 5, compels religious healthcare providers to counsel terminally ill patients about physician-assisted suicide, make referrals to participating providers, and in some cases accommodate the process inside their own facilities.
Becket – the religious liberty law firm that dragged the Obama administration to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Little Sisters – filed a federal lawsuit in Albany on behalf of 13 plaintiffs.
The lawsuit is called Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James.
Attorney Adèle Keim told The Free Press exactly what the law demands: "The sisters are required to create an assisted suicide information delivery system and implement it in their home."
That is not a metaphor.
The Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict face something even worse: their facility is not legally classified as a healthcare facility, which means they receive no exemption at all.
New York would force them to administer the drugs.
Hochul Claims the Medical Aid in Dying Act Has Religious Exemptions. The Lawsuit Calls That a Lie.
Hochul's office insists the law protects religious providers.
The exemption in the Medical Aid in Dying Act is real but narrow — it covers home hospice providers who decline to offer assisted suicide directly, while the plaintiffs run hospitals, long-term care facilities, and residential programs for the elderly that fall entirely outside it.
Even those facilities that qualify for the opt-out still face mandatory duties: information delivery, counseling, records, referrals, and patient transfers.
The law also prevents religious institutions from disciplining employees who counsel patients toward assisted suicide, even when those employees are violating the institution's core religious mission.
Bishop John O. Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, also a plaintiff, was direct: "We will never submit to New York's culture of death."
Mother Alice Marie Monica of the Little Sisters of the Poor said the same: "Our calling is to protect and care for needy seniors, not steer them toward suicide. We will remain true to that mission, whatever the cost."
Becket president Mark Rienzi went further: "New York is forcing sick and dying people to consider suicide at their lowest moment, regardless of whether they ask for it or not. Worse, it's conscripting the nuns who care for them into its suicide cult on pain of crushing fines and professional ruin."
The Little Sisters of the Poor Won This Fight at the Supreme Court. New York Is Trying Again.
New York is not breaking new ground here.
It is repeating the same playbook that collapsed under federal scrutiny for over a decade.
The Little Sisters of the Poor spent years fighting ObamaCare's HHS mandate, which tried to force them to provide contraceptive coverage that violated their faith.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in their favor in 2020 in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania.
State governments kept suing anyway.
A federal district judge sided with Pennsylvania again in August 2025 – a ruling the Sisters are currently appealing to the Third Circuit.
New York watched all of that and decided it was their turn.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act takes effect in two weeks.
The nuns are asking a federal judge to block it before it does.
Hochul's strategy is to run out the clock — bury religious providers in compliance demands until the law is embedded deep enough that no injunction can fully undo it.
These are women who have buried the poor for over a century without charging a dime.
New York's answer is to hand them a deadline and a penalty schedule.
Sources:
- Rachel del Guidice, "Catholic nuns sue New York, say assisted suicide law forces them to violate their faith," Fox News, July 20, 2026.
- Julia Cassidy, "Meet the Catholic Nuns Who Are Suing New York for Its Euthanasia Law," Townhall, July 20, 2026.
- David Manney, "The Left's Favorite Religious Target Is Wearing a Habit," PJ Media, July 20, 2026.
- Rick Moran, "Nuns Who Minister to the Dying Suing New York to Be Exempted From Assisted Dying Statute," PJ Media, July 18, 2026.
- "Bishop Barres, Catholic Sisters Sue New York Over Assisted Suicide Mandates," National Catholic Register, July 20, 2026.
- "Catholic Nuns Sue New York to Stop Coercive Assisted Suicide Law," LifeNews.com, July 20, 2026.
