Liberal groups sue over Trump administration's conscience objection rule

A collection of legal groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday over new rules that protect medical workers with religious objections from being forced to provide or refer to abortion, sterilization, or medically assisted suicide.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, Lambda Legal, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Santa Clara County are asking the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California to strike down the rule, which they are referring to as the "denial of care rule." The groups are representing medical facilities, community centers, and civil rights organizations across the U.S.

"Religious liberty is the right to believe or not, to worship or not, as you see fit," Richard Katskee, legal director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a phone call with reporters. "When it is distorted into being a weapon, a way to discriminate against and harm other people, to make them bear the costs and burdens of your religious exercise, that goes way beyond what is constitutionally permissible, yet that is exactly what the government has licensed here."

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