Officials with the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund and the Thomas More Society have joined to bring a civil rights lawsuit against the state of California for preventing the opening of a center to help girls escape sex trafficking.

It is the state's Department of Social Services that has refused to license the Refuge, a residential treatment home for sex-trafficked teen girls, according to an announcement about the legal action in Superior Court in San Diego.

The center is to be run by Children of the Immaculate Heart, a religious charity, but it sued because the state is requiring that its center be left empty.

"The issue is whether religious caretaking organizations can serve victims of sex trafficking consistent with their faith," the legal teams explained.

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The action demands that state regulators responsible for foster care answer for their ongoing refusal to issue CIH a license to open the Refuge.

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But licensing officials have made it clear that they find CIH's Catholic identity "offensive" and that they "disagree with the charity's religious beliefs about sexual orientation and reproduction," the case contends.

"The Refuge has been sitting empty for over two years. Evidence shows that licensing officials are stonewalling the Refuge's application to force CIH to either withdraw the application under economic duress or sacrifice its religious beliefs. CIH currently spends $15K per month to maintain the Refuge and has spent nearly $600K total since 2015," they reported.

"Right now, a desperately needed rescue home for sex-trafficked girls sits empty because the government refuses to license a care provider with Catholic beliefs," said Paul Jonna, senior counsel for the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund. "Every child who is at risk of sex trafficking deserves a safe place with loving caretakers. Charitable agencies that help rescue children from sex trafficking should be protected, not excluded for their faith."

The issue is the state's social-sexual-progressive agenda.

The announcement about the fight explained, "Licensing officials have demanded that CIH certifies that it will promote LGBTQ events, drive residents to get abortions, and inject children with transgender hormone medications. CIH does not object to a child's access to such programs, activities, or actions, but it objects to cooperating in them."

"Hundreds of teenage girls continue to be pimped out in our county every night," said Grace Williams, CIH's founder and executive director, "Yet the state of California considers prohibiting Children of the Immaculate Heart's free exercise of religion and freedom of speech more important than helping these girls escape a living hell of being raped up to ten times a day."

Williams had founded CIH because of studies reporting up to 8,000 victims of gang-involved sex trafficking in the San Diego area every year.

Even San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, the County Probation Department, and the County Juvenile Court all have endorsed CIH.

The legal action seeks a court order forcing the state defendants to process the organization's application "in a neutral manner" and avoid basing any decision on the defendants' "religious beliefs and practices."