A Catholic religious order that has spent more than a century providing free hospice care to the dying poor filed a federal lawsuit this week against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, charging that a state transgender-rights law forces the sisters to choose between their faith and their mission, or face fines, loss of their license, and up to a year behind bars.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne run Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed facility in Hawthorne, New York, where they care for terminal cancer patients at no charge. They take no insurance, no government funds, and no money from patients or families. Their complaint: a law Hochul signed on Nov. 30, 2023, titled the "Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and people living with HIV long-term care facility residents' bill of rights," now requires every long-term care facility in the state to assign rooms by gender identity rather than biological sex, grant access to opposite-sex bathrooms, use residents' preferred pronouns, train all staff in gender ideology, and post a public notice declaring compliance.
The sisters say they cannot do any of that without betraying their Catholic beliefs. And the state's enforcement tools are not gentle.
Penalties that carry real teeth
Noncompliance with the mandate carries fines of up to $2,000 per violation, escalating to $5,000. Courts can order forced compliance. The state can revoke a facility's license. And for what the law classifies as willful violations, penalties jump to fines of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up to one year. As the Washington Times reported, the lawsuit itself notes that "a willful violation is a knowing one; there is no element of evil motive required." In other words, the sisters do not have to act with malice to face criminal exposure. They merely have to know the rule exists and decline to follow it.
For an order of nuns whose entire operation depends on the goodwill of private donors, the threat of license revocation alone could end their work overnight.
A record that speaks for itself
The lawsuit draws a sharp contrast between Rosary Hill Home's track record and the rest of New York's nursing-home industry. During the four-year reporting period from Feb. 1, 2022, through Jan. 31, 2026, the New York State Department of Health received zero complaints from Rosary Hill residents. Over the same span, the department logged more than 55,000 complaints against other nursing homes statewide, with an average of 23 citations per facility.
Zero complaints. Zero citations. And yet the state is treating the sisters as though they run a rogue operation that needs to be brought to heel.
The pattern of government mandates colliding with individual conscience is not unique to this case. The Navy recently confronted its own reckoning when an under secretary apologized for vaccine mandate discharges that forced service members out for following their convictions. The mechanism differs; the dynamic is the same.
How the state tightened the screws
The Catholic Benefits Association, which issued a press release describing the legal action, laid out the timeline. The law took effect after Hochul signed it in late 2023. Then, on March 18, 2024, the New York State Department of Health sent the first in a series of "Dear Administrator" letters to Rosary Hill Home. Those letters spelled out the state's demands and included a training curriculum the Catholic Benefits Association described as "requiring the sisters to align patient care and the training of their sisters and employees with the State's gender ideology."
The sisters did not comply. And so the standoff escalated to the courthouse.
Mother Marie Edward, O.P., told Fox News Digital in a statement what the order's work actually looks like:
"We are consecrated religious Sisters and have one mission. It is to provide comfort and skilled care to persons dying of cancer who cannot afford nursing care. We do not take insurance or government funds or money from our patients or families. The care is totally free."
She added that the sisters serve without regard to race, religion, or sex, "because Jesus taught us that, when the least among us are sick, we should care for them, as if they were Christ himself."
Then came the harder edge of her statement:
"New York's gender ideology mandates not only violate our Catholic values, they threaten our existence with fines, injunctions, license revocation, and even jail time. This is why we were forced to go to court to seek protection of our religious exercise and freedom of speech so that we can continue our ministry to the poor."
A foundress's charge, now under state pressure
Sister Stella Mary, O.P., the administrator of Rosary Hill Home, invoked the order's history in the Catholic Benefits Association press release. The order's foundress, Mother Alphonsa Hawthorne, charged the sisters to serve those who are "to pass from one life to another" and to "make them as comfortable and happy as if their own people had kept them and put them into the very best bedroom."
Sister Stella Mary said the order intends to honor that obligation, but needs relief from the court to do so.
The case fits a broader pattern of progressive institutional mandates pressing against faith-based organizations. Separately, abortion doula training was found targeting teens as young as 14 at UNC Charlotte, another instance of ideology being pushed through institutional channels with little regard for the people on the receiving end.
The state's response, and what it doesn't say
Hochul's office, contacted by Fox News Digital for comment, referred the inquiry to the New York State Department of Health. A department spokesperson offered a carefully limited reply:
"While the Department does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation, the NYS Department of Health is committed to following state law, which provides nursing home residents certain rights protecting against discrimination including, but not limited to, gender identity or expression."
What the statement does not address is how the state reconciles those protections with the First Amendment's guarantees of religious exercise and free speech, the precise questions the lawsuit raises. It also does not explain why the state chose to target a facility with a spotless complaint record while tens of thousands of grievances pile up at other homes across New York.
As Fox News reported, the sisters say the law could punish them for refusing to comply with gender-identity requirements in their hospice, a facility where every patient is terminally ill and receiving care free of charge.
What's really at stake
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne are not a large hospital system with a legal department and a lobbying arm. They are a small religious order running a 42-bed home for the dying poor, funded entirely by private charity. The state of New York has decided that this order must adopt a training curriculum rooted in gender ideology, restructure its room assignments, open its bathrooms on the basis of gender identity, compel its members to use preferred pronouns, and advertise its compliance, or face financial ruin and criminal prosecution.
The law Hochul signed bans long-term care facilities and staff "from discriminating against any resident on the basis of a resident's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status." The sisters do not claim to discriminate. They claim they serve everyone who comes to them. Their objection is to the specific mandates the state has layered on top of that nondiscrimination language, mandates that require them to affirm a view of human identity their faith does not share.
Threats to houses of worship and faith-based institutions are not limited to courtroom battles. In North Carolina, a hazardous device was found and destroyed in the parking lot of a church, a reminder that religious communities face pressure from many directions.
The open questions are significant. What court will hear the case? Will the sisters seek an emergency injunction to block enforcement while the lawsuit proceeds? And will New York attempt to enforce the mandate against Rosary Hill Home before the court rules?
None of those answers are available yet. What is available is a clear picture of the choice Albany has forced: nuns who have cared for the dying for over a hundred years, who have drawn zero complaints, must now either bend their faith to the state's preferred ideology or risk losing everything they have built.
When the government threatens to jail nuns for running a free hospice according to their conscience, the problem is not with the nuns.
