ANDREA PICCIOTTI-BAYER: The Nuns Fighting New York To Serve Dying Cancer Patients |
A small group of Catholic nuns is taking on one of the most powerful governors in the country. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne are in a striking David-and-Goliath clash with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the full weight of New York state. What’s at stake is not just religious liberty, but also whether the kind of quiet charity the Sisters exercise is still welcome in American public life.
Earlier this month, the Sisters filed suit against Hochul in U.S. District Court, challenging a 2024 New York law that requires long-term care facilities to use a patient’s preferred pronouns and to assign rooms and regulate restroom access according to gender identity rather than biological sex. The Sisters can’t comply without violating their Catholic faith. They formally asked the state for a religious exemption in March, but the state did not respond. Penalties for defiance include fines, license revocation, and jail time.
What makes this hard to dismiss as a culture war skirmish is what the Sisters actually do, and for whom. To get into Rosary Hill Home, their 42-bed facility in Westchester County, you need two things: a terminal cancer diagnosis and your word that there is no one else to care for you. No insurance. No government reimbursement. No payment of any kind. In 125 years of operation, the state........