“No law requires religious hospitals and medical personnel to commit abortions against their faith and conscience, and, in fact, federal law directly prohibits the government from engaging in any such coercion. As we argued in our brief to the court, the ACLU had no standing to bring this suit and demand this kind of government coercion,” Theriot said.

A federal court on Monday slapped down a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that sought to force a Catholic hospital system to violate its own pro-life policies in order to perform abortions.

In a 13-page ruling, the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan (Southern Division) said the ACLU had no standing to make a complaint when it claimed the hospital system’s policies would prevent the termination of a pregnancy in order to stabilize a mother’s condition – primarily because the suit didn’t pertain to actual events experienced at the hospital.

The events, instead, were regarded as hypothetical by the court, which also claimed the case was not “ripe for review” because no one had been factually injured by the hospital system’s policies.

Trinity Health Corporation, which operates nine hospitals in Michigan and more than 90 hospitals and continuing care facilities around the country, adheres to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health, which is provided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Directive 45 states in the policies, “Abortion (that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability of the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted.”

Trinity Health, along with the Catholic Medical Association, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists all joined the case. Alliance Defending Freedom intervened on their behalf.

“No American should be forced to commit an abortion—least of all faith-based medical workers who went into the profession to follow their faith and save lives, not take them,” Kevin Theriot, ADF’s senior legal counsel, said in a statement following the court’s ruling.

“No law requires religious hospitals and medical personnel to commit abortions against their faith and conscience, and, in fact, federal law directly prohibits the government from engaging in any such coercion. As we argued in our brief to the court, the ACLU had no standing to bring this suit and demand this kind of government coercion,” Theriot said.

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