SAN FRANCISCO, California, July 6, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the federal government for awarding government contracts to the U.S. Catholic bishops and other Catholic agencies, arguing that doing so violates the Establishment Clause because of the Catholic groups’ refusal to include abortion in their charitable services.

The U.S. Government is not meeting the responsibility to protect illegal immigrant minor women by giving grants to entities who refuse to provide them access to abortion and contraception, the ACLU contends, specifically naming the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), various Catholic Charities offices, and other Catholic groups.

Abortion and so-called “emergency contraception” are “basic necessities” for these women, according to the ALCU, because of the likelihood they could be raped while entering the United States or once they have arrived.

"The federal government can't abdicate its legal obligation to protect and provide reproductive health care to these vulnerable young women,” an ACLU statement said. “Allowing religious organization to dictate the type of care that these teens, who often have fled unimaginable violence, receive is not only unlawful but also cruel."

“The federal government is legally required to provide these young people with basic necessities, such as housing, food, and access to emergency and routine medical care, including family planning services, post-sexual assault care, and abortion,” according to the June 24 suit that names the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS), its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), and the Administration of Children and Families (ACF).

The ACLU is not out to prevent the U.S. Catholic Bishops and similar organizations from obtaining future grants, Mother Jones reports, rather it seeks to compel them via the federal government to provide access to abortion when they do receive government money for providing services.

"What we're asking from the court is that all federal government grantees follow the law and provide all the necessary and required care that they're supposed to,” ACLU of Northern California attorney Jennifer Chou said. “We understand freedom of religion is an important constitutional right, but religious liberty does not give you the right to impose your beliefs on a vulnerable population."

The USCCB has declined to comment on the lawsuits.

“Defendants’ decision to authorize this religiously motivated denial of services has extraordinary consequences for the vulnerable unaccompanied immigrant minor population,” the suit also states, alleging that because of Catholic service providers, women seeking abortions were transferred between facilities or denied entry to certain facilities. This resulted in the women being uprooted and ostracized, according to the ACLU, which also alleges the federal government altered language in cooperative agreements with unaccompanied minor grantees because the USCCB objected to providing access to abortion and contraception.

The ACLU also sued the federal government’s ACF in March seeking documents from a $2 million grant awarded in 2015 to the USCCB for services provided to human trafficking victims, alleging in the suit that in awarding the grant, the federal government had authorized the U.S. Bishops’ Conference “to impose its religious beliefs on a vulnerable population that needs access to critical reproductive health services.”

The group initially sued in 2009 in Massachusetts, contending that federal grants awarded to the USCCB for trafficking survivors violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, and prevailed in 2012 in federal district court. After the 2015 grant was awarded to the USCCB, the ACLU made an FOIA request in November 2015 for the related documents, with the March suit coming in follow-up for the documents.

The ACLU had also sued the federal government in April 2015 seeking documents pertaining to government contracts with the agencies providing the services to the unaccompanied minors and women, specifically citing the USCCB as violating the terms of its government contract and using religious freedom as a defense for refusing to provide access to contraception, abortifacients and abortion.

“Some of these organizations impose their religious beliefs on these teens by denying them access to contraception, emergency contraception, and abortion,” the ACLU stated at the time.

The federal government issued proposed regulations in late 2014 requiring that federal contractors providing care for unaccompanied minors also provide access to contraception, “emergency contraception,” and abortion if a minor had been raped. They were set to take effect in June 2015. The USCCB and other groups objected to the regulations in February 2015, citing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

The ACLU has an extensive history of opposing Catholic bishops and the USCCB in obtaining government grants while upholding Catholic doctrine, suing or threatening to sue both the federal government and the USCCB directly for the Bishops’ Conference maintaining Catholic principles in operating its healthcare facilities and managing its charitable works, and even launching an anti-Catholic Church ad campaign in recent months designed to cause Catholic healthcare institutions to be stripped of federal funding.

The ACLU had also contacted the Walgreen’s drugstore chain last December out of concern over its planned partnership with a Catholic hospital to operate in-store health clinics in two Pacific Northwest states, specifically citing services, information and referrals being “limited by religious doctrine.”

In January 2015, the ACLU pressed a Michigan state regulatory board to force a Catholic hospital system to perform sterilizations, and in October 2015 sued a Catholic hospital system for its refusal to commit abortion. The suit was thrown out by a judge in April.

The activist group threatened to sue another Michigan Catholic hospital last September for refusing to sterilize a mother after her scheduled C-section, and it had also threatened legal action earlier last year against a California Catholic hospital for also refusing to allow sterilization of a mother after her C-section. A judge ruled in January that forcing the Catholic hospital to sterilize the mother would be a violation of religious freedom.

In 2014, the ACLU filed an amicus curiae brief in Wyoming in support of the HHS mandate forcing Catholic organizations to provide contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization to employees.

The ACLU sued the U.S. Bishops’ Conference in 2013, claiming that the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD’s) sustaining Catholic principles in Catholic hospitals equate to medical negligence. The suit centered on a Michigan woman who was treated at a Catholic hospital for per-term labor and an accompanying infection, and argued the hospital should have induced labor, which would have resulted in the unborn child’s death.