Why Pope Francis Wants The White House To Lose Its Obamacare Lawsuit

Pope Francis's trip to Washington, D.C., has generally proceeded to plan, except for an unexpected — and unscheduled — visit on Wednesday night, when the pope dropped by a convent of nuns suing the White House.

Specifically, Pope Francis held a short meeting with the Little Sisters of the Poor, the group of nuns fighting the Affordable Care Act's birth control rules. And the pope's private visit was no accident, according to the Vatican's press secretary.

“This is a sign, obviously, of support for them," Father Federico Lombardi said in a news conference on Wednesday night.

Pope Francis quietly protested U.S. President Barack Obama's health care law this week. (Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

The Little Sisters of the Poor's lawsuit focuses on a complicated provision in the Affordable Care Act: Can the government require organizations to buy health insurance that includes birth control?

Especially if it's an organization — like a convent of Catholic nuns — that has religious objections to birth control?

If you're having deja vu, you're not alone; the White House already was sued (and lost) in an earlier case called Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, a major decision that allowed certain organizations to file religious objections to the ACA's birth control requirements.

As a result, the Obama administration created an exemption to let those organizations opt out of Obamacare's contraception mandate, and that's why Little Sisters of Poor is suing again: The nuns say that requiring them to even file an objection is a violation of their religious freedoms.

The nuns' case is headed for the Supreme Court.

Pope Francis's visit to the convent is politically sensitive for all the obvious reasons. Birth control is a consistently hot-button issue, and while Obamacare isn't as divisive as it used to be, it still sparks partisan debates. And as one of the world's most important leaders, anything the pope does will be tinged with scrutiny and parsed for meaning.

Although in this case, the reason for the pope's visit is really fairly simple, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told USA Today's Gregory Korte. It's about standing up for Catholics' beliefs under American law, he said.

"Freedom of religion also means the ability to live out your religion," Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz told USA Today. "The last thing the Little Sisters of the Poor want to do is sue somebody."

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