Dignum et justum est: Obamacare and Travail of the Little Sisters

This essay traces the Affordable Care Act from initiation through the bureaucratic unfolding of required preventive health services for women and presents the ethically reasoned objections to provision of certain services and compliance with regulations for implementation by the Little Sisters of the Poor, an international order of consecrated nuns dedicated to care of the elderly poor. The author’s intent is to understand and intelligently convey the fundamental issues raised by their challenge.