Just two days before Christmas, the Department of Health and Human Services quietly issued a notice stating their intent to withdraw rule changes to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraception mandate that the Little Sisters of the Poor have been fighting for years.

According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), the long-sought victory for the Little Sisters came in the form of a notice in the Federal Register announcing that they are withdrawing the Biden administration’s proposed rule that would have barred the nuns and other religious organizations from claiming exemptions to the ACA requirement to provide abortion and contraception coverage in employee health plans.

“The Departments have determined it appropriate to withdraw the proposed rules at this time to focus their time and resources on matters other than finalizing these rules,” the notice states. “Additionally, in light of the volume and breadth of scope of the comments received, the Departments want to further consider the proposals made in the proposed rules.”

It went on to state that should the Department decide in the future to move forward with the rulemaking in this area, they would have the benefit of using the most up-to-date facts and information on these issues as they decide how to best implement the contraceptive coverage requirements of the ACA while still respecting religious objections to contraception.

“For these independently sufficient reasons, the Departments are withdrawing the proposed rules, and may propose new rules in the future, as appropriate to meet these goals.”

The sisters have been battling the contraception mandate since 2011 when the Obama administration required all employers to provide free coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations and “emergency birth control” in employee health plans under the ACA.

“Although the sisters have celebrated two Supreme Court successes, in 2016 and 2020, they are still fighting for their religious liberty in district courts in California and Pennsylvania, which have continued to pursue legal action to rescind the religious exemptions granted to the sisters by the U.S. Supreme Court,” writes Madalaine Elhabbal for CNA.

Becket, the law firm that has been representing the sisters, celebrated the news, saying on X, “Christmas came a little early this year. In 2011, the federal government told this group of nuns to park their convictions at the entrance of the public square or be on the hook for millions of dollars in fines. For the Sisters, that wasn’t much of a choice, so they fought back in court.”

With the help of Becket, the sisters “defeated the federal government at [the U.S. Supreme Court] not once but twice and are still in court defending their ministry against a group of states led by California and Pennsylvania,” Becket continued on X.

“As mentioned, the new rule will not be issued, which will hopefully thaw the states’ cases against them, leading to a final victory for nuns whose sole mission is to care for the elderly dying until God calls them home. California and Pennsylvania have no business suing the Little Sisters when presidential administrations of both parties have given religious exemptions to the Sisters.”

They added one final thought to their post about this latest victory. “Suing nuns is never a good idea.”

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